[DeTomaso] Pantera Design Question
Ken Green
kenn_green at yahoo.com
Tue Aug 28 10:04:45 EDT 2007
Dave,
That sounds like the understeer/oversteer issue and you just swap in a larger rear sway bar to get the more responsive handling back.
Ken
mikeldrew at aol.com wrote:
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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