Results of Lemons Racing our SN95 V6 5sp & panhard bar question

24hrlemons

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We did our road race last weekend for the 24hour of Lemons at MSR Houston. Great track, great time. :headbang:

In a nutshell,the car handled great. I used info from this group to lower the car and added a rear sway bar which '98's dont' have. However I did spin out and the rear end seemed to break loose w/o a lot of warning - but I'm also not an expert driver and was going fast. I eased off the throttle and went into a long sweeper at about 80 and it took it fine through the first half, but then w/o warning the rear broke loose totally and I was doing an impersonation of a drift car at opposite lock until it came around anyway. I think the track was a bit greasy there, but the radius was the same.

In talking with some other mustang guys they told me the mustang 4 link with stock setup does tend to load up and then unload and not be as predictable as it could be. I am planning on making a panhard bar setup and have the rod ends and all that.

Question - Was I just over-driving the car and being a knucklehead or would a panhard bar help make the rear more predictable?

Oh, and we finished 40th out of about 120 cars for two day endurance race, even after losing 2nd gear (bent fork) and having a fuel pump go bad the second day. Not bad for a car that still had glass in it and other issues, stock exhaust!
 

GDTrumbo

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Yes, the panhard rod kit will work wonders. MM, Griggs and some others have them available. The MM assembly takes about 11 hours to precisley fit and will run you about $360 for a new one. There's a small chance you could find a used one but....

GT
 
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24hrlemons

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OK, so it wasn't totally my fault - LOL :angel4:

I have seen pics of these and one up close on a car, so I'm going to make one for our car as our "budget" for this class of racing would not allow such extravigance as a purchased bar! I have bought the biggest rod ends Jeg's had with opposite threads for adjustment if needed, and some steel, so I'll try my hand at welding one up. :thumbsup:
 

cntchds

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When I put my watts link on my car it was an instant difference which was amazing. Be sure to adjust with your wheels with full weight on them. I adjusted mine with a jack under the rear end to hold it in place, and that was not enough. Gotta put the full suspension back on and put it on ramps.
 

GDTrumbo

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24hrlemons. Could you add your current mods to your sig so we kinda know where you are with this?

Do you have subframe connectors on this car currently?
These will help the rear subframe/axle follow the front end some better and are not too expensive
to create from 1" x 2" sq. tubing.

GT
 

ReplicaR

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From what I've been reading sounds like you were overdriving the vehicle. Cars never do anything on their own. Use straights to do most of the braking, and then control speed through the corner by using throttle. Panhard bar will not help you with snap oversteer. You may also wanna give a thought about what setup you are running (springs, sway bars) it could be that you've set the car up too loose. I'm almost certain that if you were to take that rear sway bar off, you'd get rid of most of that oversteer.
 

mikey94gt

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Check out the 5 link 2 from steeda. they add a panhard bar and straighten the top links, which are the source of most of the bind in the rear suspension. stiffer lower control arms do help, as does the control arm, but adding a panhard bar and either straightened links and or the torque arm is the way to go. the rear axle was measured by several companies to move about 2" side to side total under agressive cornering.

as far as the rear end unloading, sounds like you were indeed "overdriving" the car, as stated. either your weight balance was slightly off, and something you did (steering wheel input, brake input, etc) set the car off. Either way, sliding off the track is no fun, no matter what you drive.
 

ReplicaR

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Lemons budget is 500 dollars. They see a Steeda 5 link in there, they'll penalize the team a lap for every dollar they are over.
 

Jetsetter

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ReplicaR said:
Panhard bar will not help you with snap oversteer.

I'm not totally certain about that. The panhard made my car MUCH more consistent when handling corners sideways. Whereas I could previously kick the car out and expect to spin over half the time, now I'm able to hold the car probably 90 percent of the time. Of course I'm countersteering like crazy and I'm trying to get the car out of traction.
 

ReplicaR

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Trust me, this seems to me more of a driver issue. You put your car sideways on purpose, OP setup his car too rear loose, and sounds like he has a lead foot. I have a panhard bar kit installed on my car as well. It is more solid in the corners when you pitch it sideways, but panhard bar setup is not going to help you if you can't modulate the throttle smoothly enough.
 

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