The MM Panhard Bar eliminates the Mustang’s unstable and unpredictable behavior while cornering near its limit. This feeling is caused by the rear of the car steering itself without any input from the driver. Rear end steering is caused by the sideways movement of the rear axle.
In the Mustang’s 4-link suspension design the lateral location of the rear axle is done by the upper control arms. The axle, however, is not precisely located—it shifts around because of the deflection of the rubber bushings in the control arms. We built a device to measure sideways movement of the axle, and actually recorded up to 2" of sideways movement of the rear axle while cornering.
In addition, the upper arms are at about a 45 degree angle from the direction of the cornering load. Some binding in these arms is induced during cornering as one arm enters into compression and the other enters into tension.
Do NOT use urethane in the upper arms to improve the side to side motion of the axle. Because of the three dimensional movement of the upper arms, severe binding will be induced as the suspension moves--with or without a Panhard bar. This effect may not be evident in a drag-only car, but if you plan to drive the car on the street at all, we do not recommend urethane in the upper arms (see the Rear Lower Control Arm section for more information).
The Panhard bar is a lateral suspension link between the rear axle and the chassis, and is the best method to control the side to side location of the axle relative to the chassis. The Panhard bar is in a direct line with the cornering load, and acts through spherical rod ends, therefore no bind is induced during cornering. By nature of its design, a Panhard bar does a better job of locating the axle than the Mustang’s four-link suspension.
Features of the unique Maximum Motorsports Panhard Bar:
MM's Panhard rod is the longest possible at 38" between pivot points. This minimizes the amount of rear axle movement associated with the arc of the rod's movement. The longer the rod, the larger the radius. The larger the radius, the smaller the sideways movement.
Slots on the MM chassis mount allow for vertical height adjustment to keep the Panhard rod level at different vehicle ride heights. A level bar reduces the effect of the rod's movement arc.
Beefy 3/4" rod-ends are mounted in double shear at both ends. If a rod-end mounted in single shear fails when the rod-end’s ball separates from its body, that end of the Panhard Bar will become completely disconnected from the mount. The result could be catastrophic as the Panhard rod will no longer provide any lateral control of the rear axle and may even drop to the roadway. If the same failure occurs to a rod-end mounted in double shear, the rod-end body will still be contained within the mounting brackets by the bolt and the two plates of the bracket. Some lateral control of the axle will still be maintained.
Both the unique design and quality materials used make the MM mounting brackets strong enough to not break and stiff enough to not flex under conrning loads of over 1 G.
The boxed axle bracket virtually encloses the rod-end for a rigid, non-flexing mount.
The MM chassis bracket mounts to the rear subframe of the car (not the flimsy trunk floor or spare tire well)- using the exclusive MM frame inserts to prevent collapse of the subframe.
The MM Panhard Bar is designed to clear the factory tailpipe routing.
The Panhard rod is mounted as low as possible to lower the rear roll center height (typically at the same height as the rod).
The Panhard rod is available in lightweight aluminum (either natural finish or polished). The identical item is used on NASCAR Winston Cup stock cars.
Compatible with T/A rear differential cover
