With everything else in Maximum...
With everything else in Maximum Motorsports' Road and Track Box, the Panhard bar is one of the major components that contribute to phenomenal cornering ability. The confidence the suspension provides is nothing short of amazing, and turns can be taken much faster. The rear suspension in the R&T Box also includes Bilstein shocks, H&R springs, a pinion snubber, and MM's lower control arms. The Panhard bar will be our primary focus.
In our Jan. '08 issue, we showed the installation and component highlights of the front half of Maximum Motorports' Road and Track Box suspension package ("How To Install a High-Performance Suspension," p. 82). If you want to turn a '79-'04 Mustang into a car with truly world-class handling capabilities and only want to deal with one source, then Maximum Motorsports (MM) is ideal for a serious corner-carving Fox or SN-95 Mustang.
MM's one and only focus is late-model Mustang chassis and suspension components. The company's sole ambition is to make '79-'08 Mustangs handle as well as possible. Its constant R&D work, along with updating existing part designs, is a major benefit to its customers.
This is the complete Panhard...
This is the complete Panhard bar package. The main items are the axle mount (left) and the chassis mount. Below is the aluminum Panhard rod itself, which is 37 1/2 inches long and equipped with large 3/4-inch Teflon-lined rod ends mounted in double shear at both ends. Also shown is the supplied hardware, including spacer plates that may or may not be required and frame inserts (next to the axle mount). The frame inserts prevent the framerails from being crushed when the chassis mount is bolted in place.
Having known about MM, its products, and its philosophies for several years, we were interested in paying a visit and spending a few days going over its offerings. In addition to learning as much as possible about Mustang handling, we've highlighted the company's best-selling system here and in the previous article, showing the parts being installed on a car.
Note that we previously concentrated on the front of the car. This is the follow-up article on the rear components of the Road and Track Box, which includes MM's exclusively designed Panhard bar and rear lower control arms.
While the car used here is our '92 LX 5.0 subject car, Fox-body 5.0 installation procedures and parts configurations are similar in most areas for '94-'04 SN-95s. Furthermore, MM has systems specific to all the variations in Fox and SN-95 production, including '79-'89 and '90-'93 Fox cars, as well as '94-'95 5.0s, '96-'98 4.6s, and '99-'04 4.6s. Pieces specific to convertibles are also part of the mix.