I'm just curious what peoples thoughts are for the best corner carver. sway bar sizes , tire sizes, lowered amount, suspension set-up chassis help etc. etc.
may as well open a big ole can of worms on this thread :evilsmile there are going to be a lot of opinions on the best ways, many from those that have never done one ,going by what they have heard /read ect. do some research, figure out your budget, then start planning. yes mavericks can handle very well, many think otherwise. I'm willing to tell you what and how I did our 77(which is set up for road coarse/handling). rattling off specs I'm sure will draw alot of critizism, as everyone has their own brand preferance on some parts . what works for some may not work for others, its like anything else, its the combination that has to work together, not one individual piece. 1st off,(this is all based on if the cars chassis will be kept on a stock configuration) you will want your car's unibody tight. tie the front and rear together with subframe connectors, strut tower braces,monte carlo bar, ect. a solid platform is always the best beginning. once that is complete, figure out exactly how you want to use the car, salom,track events,touring,ext.....actually that should be first, comes into play with doing your initial planning/research 2nd dont get carried away with numbers, bigger isnt always better, but in some cases it works. tire sizes, wheels diameter, spring rates, shocks, bushings, all down to the little stuff will all make a difference. I've been happy with our set up, its a good handler, decent ride that wont beat you on the highway,but you can throw it around corners like a go-kart lowering the car will help with roll center,and center of gravity. too low can bite you as well, if your after all out you have to have room for suspension travel. doing a mav this direction isnt always the most popular(since the majority are more drag oriented) but it is fun. tim is right, read up on what Ford and Shelby used on the ealry falcons,stangs for road racing, scca was big in the late 60's early 70's so most everything will apply directly over since these are based of the falcon anyway. the modern upgrades will be vastly improved tires/wheel diameters, bushings, and so on. have fun with it
Did you move the upper ball joint in yours RadMav? I've read it, downloaded a diagram and didn't have time or money to take the car off the road to do it.
specs please Radmav, could you go ahead and list the specifics? I promise no whining, just would like to see the details on something that someone is happy with.
sure, I'll list the set up we have done.....like I mentioned before, there are several ways to do it, and this is just one option. the mods we have done to the 77 for the suspension were done years before some of the newer "trick" type stuff was avalible. and honestly some of the trick stuff I personally dont believe will work any better to justify the high cost.(again, my opinon) like i mentioned in the previous post, you have to have a good foundation, I made subframe connectors, a monte carlo bar, and tubular strut tower braces. wheels and tires will make a huge difference. I used 17's (7's in front with 8's in back) with what at the time was about the stickiest tire avalible.245/45's front and 255/40's rear(dunlop sp8000's)I wanted to run larger wheels but ran into interferance issues at the time because I didnt want to use a spacer or have the wheels protruding, as it worked out, its fine as is. I had custom sway bars made in 1 1/8th front and 7/8's rear with poly bushings from addco. speaking of bushings I used a pst polygraphite/polyurathane kit (which ever its called) and replaced everything front to back.I had custom springs made(I believe it may have been thru Just Suspensions?)620lb/in front with a 1 inch drop built in,and heavy duty 4 leaves in back with a 1 inch drop as well . I put all new suspension pieces on as well, i.e. new upper and lower control arms, and strut rods(I had broke one before , so I wasnt taking any chances). am using the versaille 9" inch with disc in back, this gives about another 1/2in offset(something to consider when ordering wheels). I searched around and came up with 4 koni shocks, glad I dont have to do that again, I doubt if they can even be found now adays. it has power steering, I had to beef up the drop bracket(broke this as well). power disc set up on the disc brakes,4 wheel disc, adjustable proportioning valve.if there was much else I cant recall and was probably minor. as stiff as this seems, the ride is very nice, not too harsh or jarring, no creaks or noises. I had a 95 mustang with a chassis kit on it at the time, and the maverick would out handle it in certain situations with out pushing on corners and without understeer/oversteer. it tracks phenomenally. I have had it on a road coarse, and have pics of smoke rolling off all four tires coming out of a corner, with no leaning, drifting or ill manners.(man that was fun) this is how I did it on a stock type chassis set up, nothing really trick, alot of old tech stuff,which seems to work well with this car, but then you have to think that the maverick isnt new by any means and the design is 60's tech by nature. at the time it was still fairly expensive. and thats with me making all the stuff I couldnt just go buy. tires are most likely cheaper now, some of the other parts probly havent changed that much. I'm sure there may be better ways to do it now,but without redesigning the car ,as in mustang II front end or changing the rear suspension to a better design, this worked for me with the existing platform. ok, sorry to have rambled hope that helps someone
Radmav I'm glad to see the set up worked for you and sounds what i'm looking for except a few things.---- i was going to go with a 7/8 in front (sway bar) and 17-8 rims all the way around (have not figured out sizes front back yet. but am open for suggestions). Glad to see the power steering still in tact have you ever heard about using the sector gears and shaft out of a falcon box for better response? i think i seen it in a hot rod archive if i can find it again i wqill post it. Thanks for your thoughts hope more come out of this thread
yes, I had heard of using different boxes and gears to quicken the steering, I found our box to be quick enuf as it was. there is a difference in boxes from what i remember, (this is all going off what I can recall from 12 or more years back when I did it)ours was the quicker of the stock boxes, so I left it as is.I did leave out that all of the steering parts are new as well. I built this with the intention of doing it only one time, and trying to do it right. and when I did it, I didnt have any info to go by that had previously been done on a maverick. I had problems at the time with running larger wheels, I couldnt find any companies locally that had any rims I could trial fit, (this was when 17's were just beginning to come onto the scene) the few more positive offset wheels I could have used needed a spacer, otherwise they hit the upper balljoint.so it came down to measuring the best i could and ordering. I dont have any clearance issues with my combination, but it is Very close in front at full turn, so I'm content with my choice. there werent any good spacers avalible then as there are now, just the cheapies that I didnt deem safe. as for suggestions, rim size is up to you, 8's shouldnt be an issue at all now, but you will still want to check carefully for offset. I dont like tire sticking out of the wheelwells myself. plus if you do "use it" you wont want it to rub. tire-wise I believe you need some sidewall for deflection, as well as ride and handling characteristics, I think you could go a bit larger in rear by a size of two and not have any issues. going to 18's or larger I think is self defeating(my opinion) too big, you get too stiff, and your ride and traction May suffer. sway bar diameters- again up to you, 7/8s will I'm sure do fine. again, its all on your particular combination and chassis tuning.its the total package that must work together. again, this was what worked for me, others have used different routes. dont forget there is always another way of doing something.
Pretty basic. A Maverick can be made to do anything a classic Mustang can do in terms of handling. Stiff springs, Upgraded front sway-bar, add rear sway-bar, good shocks, Sticky tires with somewhat of a wide footprint, urethane bushings, subframe connectors, and relocated tubular control-arms (if you have the $$$) just to name a few upgrades...
I have 7/8 front sway bar & PST front coils with a 2 inch drop and 17x8 rims with 225/45/17. It made a very big difference in the way it handles. I cut the springs a little to get 1/2 inch lower, also got KYB shocks. It is stiff but not to bad. I could not find a bigger sway bar. You can put wider tires on it too. I have lowered mine so much that the tire is only 3/4 on an inch from the top of the fender when turned to the max.
Do a Google search on the net for 'Shelby Upper control arm drop'. In '65/'66 Shelby relocated the upper control arms. Supposedly to change the geometry of the suspension, keeping more of the front tires on the ground in curves. Same suspension design on a Mav/Comet so it could help. Seth
hum personally i wouldn't go with an 8 front rim.. your tire sizes will be limited not to menation the rim will stick out of the fender even with a 4.5 backspace which is pushing it with anything bigger then a 235. i just don't see the point in going with a x8 and having 235s or smaller on them. whats the point... i see it all the time on chevys with these big huge rims to be "pro tour" car for cornering and they have like 225s on the front and 275 on the rear :confused: i mean if it wasn't for cornering then hwy not just put 15s fat and skinnys on it... then again i'm talking about car show people.. anyways as i have posted on here before you can get a 285/35-18 or 285/40-17 under a rear of a maverick with a stock rearend and fender rolling. but i think a 255 will do just fine and i belive the 245 -255 or 265 combo is better for some road racing. now if you were to go all out road racing i'd just stick with 16s.. more tire choice and less rolling mass. but i personally i see no problems with 18s either.. if its a driving and you hit the coners hard once in ahwhile... well on the rear at least. if you like the old man soft ride (sorry old guys ) then yeah don't get 18's or even 16's for that matter. if you read a few issues of Popular Hot Rodding a few months ago he talks about what size is too big.. it makes very good sence. anyways just my i know some have seen this photo already (too bad ) but this is at about 60+ mph in the rain in a very very sharp turn (see the wall in the back i was paralell with it b4 the turn) with 18s 255 and 17's 245 corners just fine
Derrick, I'm surprised at you. My whole wheel combo came directly from your spec on the wedsite. 225/45 are are a fraction taller than 245/40 in side wall thickness. 225 are 7.97 & 245/40 are 7.71. The only difference is 245/40 are a 1/2 inch wider. The 1/2 inch divided by each side of the rims is only 1/4 wider. The will fit on the front wth space. Well were my car sits it can. If I had air bags on the front the tire will still tuck in the fender if the car was lowered to the ground. I didn't even have to roll the lip that much. I'm not mad though. I just depend on you to push the limits so I can follow behind with the same thoughts & upgrades for better handling than what is aready done. Or at least compare thoghts.
