ctandc72
Well-Known Member
I ordered the Ford PP front bar new. It was most definitely bigger than the factory V6 bar I pulled off. I know it was the factory bar - bought the car new. Handling is subjective. Always has been. It was when I raced dirt track and pavement in the 80's. It was the same when I tracked 3rd gen F-Body's years after that.Well I too have to disagree. I installed PP sway bars as well. The only reason I did was because they came with the PP suspension parts i bought (front control arms, toe links, shock/struts). I noticed a larger degree of difference with my handling springs then any of those items. Yes it felt more composed but to say the PP sway bars made that much difference is not something I would subscribe too. The PP says are literally 1 millimeter thicker in the rear and the fronts are exactly the same size as base v6. The difference is the bushings are pressed on which gives a more on center feel when driving. It can actually be argued this pressed on bushing becomes an issue the more power and suspension parts u add as u will end up with deflection and binding in the sway bars. So much so I switched to Steeda adjustables. I noticed an improvement after that for sure. But of course this is all subjective so what I notice and you notice are based on just that, us. But I do think a better bang for your buck would be the GT350R sway bar which last time I checked was still in the 100s with bushings.
Most mass production cars suffer from understeer from the factory. For a pretty simple reason - it's a helluva lost easier to try and correct an understeer condition for an average driver than it is in an oversteer situation. I've driven cars that handled ridiculously good, but there was no warning before the grip of the tires came loose. I tend to prefer a bit of oversteer - simply because that's what I prefer, it's what I'm comfortable, especially considering my background in dirt track racing and growing up driving on dirt roads.
When it comes to springs / struts and lowering / not lowering, that's almost always subjective as well. While in theory lowering a car's center of gravity helps in the handling department it also changes a myriad of other things and this affects driving characteristics. The truth is that 99% of all drivers in a car such as a Mustang will reach the limit of their driving experience before reaching the limit of what the car is capable of.
I've seen guys lower cars and say "the ride isn't bad at all" - again that's subjective. The truth is cars are more prone to being under-damped from the factory than they are under sprung and some of the spring rates I've seen on common lowering springs back when I was working on 3rd gen F-Body's (considered VERY good handling cars with simple mods, even now) were ridiculous , especially paired with the strut / spring combo's people were commonly using.
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