So far, I have been able to register also on a couple of other Panther related sites with the same user name.
I have owned a '97 Grand Marquis GS, Prairie Tan inside and out, 187K miles, belonged to original owners til last month. Purchased from a family of missionaries leaving the country, and given to us by a wife's friend. Thank you again, Wendy, this old man is having a blast, having been sprung from a 2000 Corolla base model.
I intend to try to do some parts swaps/upgrades for better performance/reliability. In particular I want to J-Mod the tranny, maybe put a tranny cooler from a CV PI on it.
The car is well maintained, though the original owners tossed the service orders and just noted what repairs and when and where.
Has had the plastic intake replaced in about 06. Has a 2.73 open rear end, and no ABS. Hooray, I can control my own brakes, thank you very much!
I have come to appreciate and like this car much more than I thought I would. Pleasantly surprised by both the performance and the mpg. My last FoMoCo car was a brand new 88 Thunderbird SC 302 with the AOD tranny, moonroof, titanium metalflake paint, dark blue leather interior, aluminum billet wheels, looked like Boyd Coddington alloys for all you old gearheads out there.
Yet the GM gets better mileage, almost as fast, in spite of weighing a good bit more, and being a good bit larger (especially passenger area, trunk, and overall length). The Bird SC was a Fox body, and of course this is a Panther.
Considering swapping in a limited slip 3.27 rear end. Supposedly mpg barely affected, and performance enhanced. Would also like to get a CV PI aluminum or even composite driveshaft, and a shaft yoke for safety. Also want to find a 21mm rear sway bar and the heavier CV PI front end sway bar, for flatter cornering.
As parts wear out, considering getting a Summit racing or CV PI junkyard larger water pump. Ditto for alternator. Want to swap the mechanical fan out, and install the dual electric setup from later CV's. Have the wiring diagram and video for this. Sounds like a junkyard hunt followed by a warm Saturday morning project.
Will go for PI rotors and pads when the time comes for a brake job. Might go for an SCT tune in the end.
Just want to make it a bit more of what it already is, a true car in the Gran Turismo tradition, and a sleeper with better engineering (not that it's bad now) and a bit more power without flashing it, except if you rev your iron next to me at a light.
I am a semi-retired IT consultant, I have a lovely and intelligent wife who is a CPA and is now in nursing school, and my son, who just left his teen years, is as good a son as any I have ever heard of. I am at peace with my Maker, and I am having a blast with the years I have left...mentally I feel thirty years younger than I am, and sometimes I feel that way physically as well...not always, but you can't have everything. I am a lucky man, and grateful for it all...
But right now, I am especially grateful for the gift of this great performing and driving machine, as good and as much fun to drive as my former TBird, or my 61 Jaguar MkII 3.8L with wire spoke knockoff wheels, British racing green paint, leather and wood interior, a Borg-Warner-Studebaker forty years ahead of its time, etc., which is the other truly great car I owned. But the GM belongs right there in the picture with it.
Looking forward to getting to know some of you, as well as sharing info and learning more about my new wheels, and caring for and hopping them up a bit.
BTW, I took my name, Volando Bajo, from the Spanish, which I speak fairly well as a second language, which means Flying Low, which is what it feels like on a back road at night, in my GM, with just the soft noise of the car and the dashboard lights...like flying in my own private cockpit.
Hope to see you around...maybe even meet some of you if either I get out your way, or you get somewhere around Philadelphia and the south Jersey area.
I have owned a '97 Grand Marquis GS, Prairie Tan inside and out, 187K miles, belonged to original owners til last month. Purchased from a family of missionaries leaving the country, and given to us by a wife's friend. Thank you again, Wendy, this old man is having a blast, having been sprung from a 2000 Corolla base model.
I intend to try to do some parts swaps/upgrades for better performance/reliability. In particular I want to J-Mod the tranny, maybe put a tranny cooler from a CV PI on it.
The car is well maintained, though the original owners tossed the service orders and just noted what repairs and when and where.
Has had the plastic intake replaced in about 06. Has a 2.73 open rear end, and no ABS. Hooray, I can control my own brakes, thank you very much!
I have come to appreciate and like this car much more than I thought I would. Pleasantly surprised by both the performance and the mpg. My last FoMoCo car was a brand new 88 Thunderbird SC 302 with the AOD tranny, moonroof, titanium metalflake paint, dark blue leather interior, aluminum billet wheels, looked like Boyd Coddington alloys for all you old gearheads out there.
Yet the GM gets better mileage, almost as fast, in spite of weighing a good bit more, and being a good bit larger (especially passenger area, trunk, and overall length). The Bird SC was a Fox body, and of course this is a Panther.
Considering swapping in a limited slip 3.27 rear end. Supposedly mpg barely affected, and performance enhanced. Would also like to get a CV PI aluminum or even composite driveshaft, and a shaft yoke for safety. Also want to find a 21mm rear sway bar and the heavier CV PI front end sway bar, for flatter cornering.
As parts wear out, considering getting a Summit racing or CV PI junkyard larger water pump. Ditto for alternator. Want to swap the mechanical fan out, and install the dual electric setup from later CV's. Have the wiring diagram and video for this. Sounds like a junkyard hunt followed by a warm Saturday morning project.
Will go for PI rotors and pads when the time comes for a brake job. Might go for an SCT tune in the end.
Just want to make it a bit more of what it already is, a true car in the Gran Turismo tradition, and a sleeper with better engineering (not that it's bad now) and a bit more power without flashing it, except if you rev your iron next to me at a light.
I am a semi-retired IT consultant, I have a lovely and intelligent wife who is a CPA and is now in nursing school, and my son, who just left his teen years, is as good a son as any I have ever heard of. I am at peace with my Maker, and I am having a blast with the years I have left...mentally I feel thirty years younger than I am, and sometimes I feel that way physically as well...not always, but you can't have everything. I am a lucky man, and grateful for it all...
But right now, I am especially grateful for the gift of this great performing and driving machine, as good and as much fun to drive as my former TBird, or my 61 Jaguar MkII 3.8L with wire spoke knockoff wheels, British racing green paint, leather and wood interior, a Borg-Warner-Studebaker forty years ahead of its time, etc., which is the other truly great car I owned. But the GM belongs right there in the picture with it.
Looking forward to getting to know some of you, as well as sharing info and learning more about my new wheels, and caring for and hopping them up a bit.
BTW, I took my name, Volando Bajo, from the Spanish, which I speak fairly well as a second language, which means Flying Low, which is what it feels like on a back road at night, in my GM, with just the soft noise of the car and the dashboard lights...like flying in my own private cockpit.
Hope to see you around...maybe even meet some of you if either I get out your way, or you get somewhere around Philadelphia and the south Jersey area.
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