Not being one to give up easily, I resumed my coilover research after finding that the D&D coilover kit wouldn't work with Bilstein Struts.  Besides Maximum Motorsports' Bilstein Coil-Over kit, I found that Griggs and Kenny Brown have introduced kits that fill the bill.  All 3 options are considerably more expensive than the D&D Kit as sold by JD's Performance, but they do fit Bilstein Struts.  If I were using any other brand of suspension dampening, I would be hard pressed to justify spending almost twice as much for any of these alternative kits.  If the D&D kit had fit my application, I can't see any reason why it wouldn't have worked just as well.

I ended up buying the Griggs kit. This is a very well made kit (as would be expected from Griggs).  The fit is very precise and easy to install… and, a breeze to adjust!  I did have problems trying to install the coilovers with by Kenny Brown Camber Plus Plates and V6 Strut Tower Brace.  The KB Strut Tower Brace mounts to the strut towers using the C/C plate mounting screws.  As well, the KB CC plates are a little too deep to allow the struts to be fully inserted without the top cap of the coilovers hitting the top of the strut tower.  The STB compounded the problem with it's additional thickness.  I had purchased a set of J&M CC Plates (from HotPart.com).  These, like the MM plates, are a 4-bolt mount for 94-02 stangs and recommended for coilovers.  I found that the extra thickness of the mounting pads for the STB was too much for these CC Plates to handle as well.  That forced me to remove the STB and I will be on the hunt for one that mounts more conventionally.  With the KB parts out of the way, the J&M plates installed easily and the coilover struts bolted right up.

I was a little concerned about the 350lb rating of the springs I was installing.  I was also confused by all of the conflicting information about spring rates for CO's.  Surprisingly, the ride seems "smoother" than it did with the FMS C springs.  It is firm, but by no means rough.  The car corners noticeably flatter and there is less nose dive with hard stops.  350lb springs should be the equivalent of about 775lb conventional springs (350 x 2.21= 773.5).  A nice combination (I'd say about perfect) and not too much for the Bilstein -H0 struts.  I do notice a small amount of noise from the metal-to-metal nature of the assembly but nothing I am not willing to live with.  I might eventually experiment with some RTV to see if I can have any affect on the noise.

While I had the front of the car off the ground, I installed a set of Maximum Motorsports aluminum steering rack bushings.  With these in place, steering wheel input now causes immediate command of the front wheels and the front-end tracks much better around corners.  The steering rack is moved rearward slightly, increasing Ackerman (this helps compensate for the difference in radii traveled by the inside and outside wheels in a turn).  There is slightly more road feel at the steering wheel but not at all uncomfortable.  The Go-Kart or Slot-Car nature of the car now is just too cool!

Next: Exhaust and Wheels/Tires