[DeTomaso] DeTomaso Digest, Vol 147, Issue 7

[Larry Stock]

It is the the lower front end of the Pantera that is the weakest point
Mike. The Upper front is well braced, it is the lower A-Arm attachment
that is left floundering. The Front affects the rear twist. Remember the
rear sway bar affects the front end handling part of 101 suspension
tuning? I actually cracked (broke off) my front frame member at the
attaching points to the Cabin. The only thing that was holding my Pantera
together was my frame brace system. The 4 piece system you refer to does
nothing to reinforce this weakest point of the Pantera Frame. Our lower
front stiffener is a 5 foot long X to cross brace the ³Splice² the factory
used to attach the front frame section to the cabin sheetmetal. Our front
brace connects the two front frame rails to the cabin lateral (cross
stiffener under the front of the seats) that ties to the 3 piece rocker
Box panels. 
Larry

On 9/7/16, 6:55 PM, "DeTomaso on behalf of Mike Drew via DeTomaso"
<detomaso-bounces at server.detomasolist.com on behalf of
detomaso at server.detomasolist.com> wrote:

>   In a message dated 9/7/16 9 49 57, owen at tadhgcooke.com writes:
>
>     I am new to Panteras  having bought one one year ago and reworked it
>     extensively
>     i am used to european cars and i know when a chassis twists and
>     therefore is poor on the handling side
>     the pantera is the only car i ever had that will lift 2 opposite
>     wheels
>     off the ground if you jack it from one corner
>     i believe it is an extremely stiff chassis and needs no further
>     stiffening .
>     the suspensions may of course need tuning for specific use  but that
>     is
>     all in my opinion
>     my car at least drives like a go-cart
>
>   >>>Well, it may be stiffer than your other European cars, but without
>   knowing what they are, that's not saying much.  1950s British
>   roadsters, for instance, are no standard to judge against in this
>   department. :>)
>   The front of the Pantera is fairly rigid, but the rear is extremely
>   flexible.  Try jacking a front corner off the ground and see how well
>   the doors, or the decklid open.
>   The four-part chassis stiffening kit addresses this fundamental
>   weakness with the piece that replaces the stock engine bay camber bar.
>   The wide open engine bay is rather like a square cardboard box with the
>   top and bottom open, laid on its side.  Push on a corner and it just
>   folds flat.  As long as the stock bar (or equivalent to include the
>   adjustable kind) is the only thing there, nothing will prevent this
>   effect from happening.  The Hall and Byars kit piece consists of an
>   upper and lower bar, tied together in a parallogram manner.  (I'm only
>   talking about the top part of their kit, not the lower part).  As long
>   as the top part is affixed in all four places, it will do a tremendous
>   job of stiffening the rear of the car.
>   http://www.precisionproformance.com/pics/rigid4.jpg
>   The other three parts of the kit are arguably much less important, but
>   you can't just buy the one you want/need; you have to buy the whole
>   kit.
>   The front half of my kit is still in the box, gathering dust....
>   Mike
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>
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