Suspension setup for extreme handling

[packman]

Probably gonna catch some flack for this, but you could try to contact Cowtown Cowboy from CVN about your ideas. He's already done this to his CV and is currently rebuilding his race car.



Packman

[DuceAnAHalf]

Nascars have one of teh worst handling suspensions around.


http://www.corner-carvers.com/forums/ go here and read and read and read before you post anything those guys are like wolves. you start a thread that is not well thought out they will jump on you.

[mrltd]

Yeah, CC is a scary place to post. I stay away from there just because of that.

Cowtowns suspension is stocker than mine! ( testqament to the awesomeness of the stock panther suspension) Nothing special there, just some spacers on the uppers on the front, some homemade replacement steel bushings. (merc and I have actually discussed this before a little- in person)

SF should be fun.. meeting of the minds...

[gadget73]

I have a feeling that making the frame less floppy would be a first step in making one of these cars seriously capable of handling. The X brace instead of the stock trans crossmember would be a good place to start. I've long thought about doing it to my car, but mostly the fact I can't weld, and don't really drive it to the point that I need such mods have kind of delayed action on that front. Up front, adding in some ties from the frame horns to the engine crossmember that are somewhat more substantial than the pieces of flattened tube that came factory on some models also couldn't hurt. Could likely ditch the stock engine cross and go with something custom, stronger, and lighter all at the same time. Adding ties at the front and rear of the frame like Towncars have wouldn't hurt either.

Once the frame is solid, the body needs to be more firmly attached to it. Stock mounts are all shot by now, and they're rubber and squishy anyhow. Poly mounts are better, but if you really want no give, probably aluminum blocks or delrin or something of that nature would be a good choice.

I'd love to see a box with IRS, maybe a modified and lengthened Cobra or MN12 setup. Mark VIII parts might even be better, those are wider. The front suspension, well, personally I like double A arms and steering gears. The big brake upper arms are decent, not those stamped things like stock boxes have. Could be replaced with tubular for weight reasons. The lower arms could stand improvement, either a tubular or even just a boxed stock unit to eliminate the flex. Some improvements to the front steering geometry might not be a bad idea. late model (98-02) cars have different linkages up front that are supposed to be an improvement over what we had. I've never really driven one of those cars, so I don't know how much it might help. I don't like the feel of a rack at all, so I have no thoughts on implementing one, other than "no".

[yucatecd]

Dear Panthers,
Mr. LTD wrote:[QUOTE=mrltd;449490]The stock parts with a few tweaks can perform on par with most of todays sportcars.

Since my 89 CP was Scottified I've driven a lot of rentals in the US, UK and France, including brand new GM's, Impalas, Citroen's and Mercedes 150's. The only two cars I drove that handled better than my 89 whale were a Chrysler 300 sedan and an Alfa Romeo.

Donald McCaig

[DuceAnAHalf]

If you want to improve the rear suspension but don't want the challenge of doing an IRS, you could go with a 3-link. Your lower arms would stay in the same place and the uppers would be replaced by a single arm above the pumpkin.

I contacted evolution motorsports about buying one of their three link brackets since the mustang kit's arms are useless to us. They said that they would sell just the bracket unfinished for around $200 iirc, this was a 2-3 years ago. Not sure weather the bracket would fully work since the mustang pumpkin is slugtly different in that it has tabs for the "moose nuts" to mount to and their bracket uses these holes.

With a 3-link you need either a panhard bar or a watts link.



As for a cage. Check out applied racing technology in clearwater fl, they are about 2 blocks from my work and they will bend up a cage for any car, anything they don't have they will go find and pattern, they did my 97 one day cause a guy with an 02 ordered a cage. You can get an 8 point for under $200, they ship it to you then you have someone local trim and install it. You can get all the way up to a 12 point that ties in the front suspension for a reasonable price

[johnunit]

Damn, I see what you guys mean. I just clicked on the first thread that caught my eye.
http://www.corner-carvers.com/forums...ad.php?t=41084

As for this thread, I have nowhere near enough knowledge to give advice, but anything worth doing is worth overdoing. Maybe someday you and Mike can go out WRX hunting together at the autocross.

[Mercmarquis]

Yea that place is pretty evil looking, I had to go through some hoops to be a member which im waiting to be approved on. I'll never post there but it seems there is a wealth of info to tap into. From what ive looked through, it seems like any question asked gets attacked. Makes me wonder why they even have a forum at all lol.

[DuceAnAHalf]

Yes there is a wealth of info there. There are guys there that work on professional race crews, there are some engineers from ford there. They attack questions that are not well thought out, or not intelligible, also make sure you search first

[mrltd]

Yeah, you guys think I'm an ass...That's a site full of people 10 times worse than me!

[Pirate]

Yeah, you guys think I'm an ass...That's a site full of people 10 times worse than me!

If that's the correct site, some time ago, these guys proceeded to tear Griggs Racing a new ass when a representative came on to chat....

[1987cp]

I didn't think that thread was that bad except for the one user being a bit of a jerk. I just learned a goodly handful of new things about Ford mac-strut junk!

[82LTDQS]

Lots of info in the stickies bro.