Reply to "Pantera 06927"

Did you ever write those 5 part reports on a Word doc or PDF that can be emailed? I would love to read them. A bloke just can't have too much knowledge on these cars, particularly when they relate to issues I'm finding.

This weekend I took the car out for a 600 mile run down along some winding mountain roads and then back along a coastal strip. The weather was attrocious with sqally winds and torrential rain for most of the weekend.

The car was a serious handful. Darting and diving on all but the most even surfaces. On the freeways it was okay, but as soon as you hit the dual lane country roads it was all over the shop. In the wet it was just dangerous, but really, at 100 km/ph on the local roads you really had to hang onto it. No fun at all.

It also leaked like a sieve, but that's another whole story. Destroyed half of the new wool carpets, and saturated nearly everything in the front trunk.

So there are a few issues with the car.

When I got it the front wheels looked all wrong and seemed to be too facr inwards. Even when sold from Georgia up to Boston, one of the posters on here noted how strange the front wheels looked. They are frrom Pantera East and I believe that the owner at the time may have ordered GT5 wheels for a GT-L or vise versa. To get the wheels to sit right on the car and look correct with the front flares, I fitted a 32mm spacer to each side.

Naturally if the back spacing on the wheels was wrong, this won't help the handling. Adding 32mm and pushing the wheels out effectively widens the track and this won't help either.

Add to this the factory bump steer and there is a serious issue here that needs rectification.

Also another contributing factor will be the springs. I feel that the car is too stiffly sprung. The rear feels okay, but even fully reconditioned Alden shockers on the highest rebound setting can't cope with the rear springs. The previous owner fitted them in 2007. Originally they were F350 / R550 but now they are F400 / R650.

What is the general consensus amongst you blokes? What spring rates do you all run? I mean our cars are basically the same weight so I'm presuming that you guys generally use similar spring rates on a variety of different shockers.

Final point of note. Do GT5 cars have different front control arms? Are they longer than stock GT-L units to allow for a wider track? Are the rack ends (tie rods) also different to allow for this extra width?