[DeTomaso] Pantera Design Question

[mikeldrew at aol.com]

Crazy Dave wrote:


I have a suspension question I would like to know.  I understand that 
the
Pantera as originaly designed performed too well and Ford told Detomaso 
to
make it handle worse to keep people safe.  They figured that sliding at
slower speeds was safer.

My question is what did they change to hamper the handling.



>>>The first thing they did was jack up the ride height like a 4x4 
because the car, as designed, didn't meet minimum headlight laws.  They 
simply jammed aluminum spacers under the springs to jack the car up.  
That raised the center of gravity and roll center and a bunch of other 
things that I know nothing about, and definitely hurt the handling.

The car was designed with built-in understeer.  By 1972 they had 
figured out that it had too much understeer, and the Euro GTS received 
the "GTS" rear sway bar, which measured 7/8", exactly the same as the 
front bar diameter (stock was 3/4").

Dollar for dollar, fitting a GTS sway bar is the single best handling 
improvement you can make to a Pantera.  And removing the spring spacers 
is *free* if you know how to do it and have a spring compressor; 
otherwise it costs about fifty bucks if you take the springs/shocks to 
a tire shop and have them do it.

Removing the spacers will dork up your wheel alignment so you'll have 
to have them sort that out for you afterwards.  But you'll be glad you 
did!

Mike
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