DD/drag racing/auto cross rear suspension upgrade

[Bmeagher]

2003 Mach 1, current weight 3200 without a driver

Current suspension, MM coil overs 12" 250 lbs, MM c/c plates, MM front control arms, Steeda upper and lower rear control arms.
This winter I'm going with a UPR k member to cut some more weight., Donovan racing front bumper support, MM solid steering shaft, and MM bump steer kit, Baer front 6 piston upgrade 4701000

Now.... I'd like to upgrade the rear suspension, but which will suite what I do best?
1: Car has never been drag raced in over 3 years, but I'd like to when I get back to civilization.
2: I DD the car durning the short summer months
3: I do compete in auto cross, since there is no drag racing where I currently live


3 rear suspension upgrades opinions
1: Swarr bar
2: MM Panhard bar
3: or Anti-roll bar

Which would you suggest and why?

 

[Svtmustang01]

Drop the Upr K member and spend the extra money to get MM k member.

 

[Bmeagher]

I'm not cheating out, but it's a easy g for a mm k and a oil filter relocation kit. Plus.... The mm k is only 7 pounds lighter then the stock k, add in the oil filter relocation kit....no weight lost.

 

[Svtmustang01]

I'm not cheating out, but it's a easy g for a mm k and a oil filter relocation kit. Plus.... The mm k is only 7 pounds lighter then the stock k, add in the oil filter relocation kit....no weight lost.

Yeah I was thinking about going that route and read multiple horror stories about the upr k member. Supposably they creak horribly and they are not that strong. They are awesome for a drag car but not really an auto X car/ daily driver.

Not to mention UPR customer service sucks.

 

[Bmeagher]

Well, I price all maximum motorsports stuff today. K member, steering rack bushings, bump steer kit, steering shaft and Panhard bar.... Just over 1700 shipped to the greater north of Canada.
I think it's a good solution, With the weight reduction I'm doing also... I shouldnt gain any weight. Probably still lose some weight and gain better handling/traction

Is a oil filter relocation kit really needed?

 

[Mr Patience]

Add a set of FR500 heads :banana:

 

[Lightning&Mach1]

Hands down MM Panhard bar. We put a Panhard bar on our mach. It blew me away how much it made the rear feel planted in the corners (with factory springs). To be honest I was kind of mad, since it felt comparable to my 99 cobra with a built IRS with FTBR bushings. However the main reason we put it on our mach was for the drag strip. When the car started pulling 1.5 60 ft. it would leave to the left bad. Put the Panhard bar on and went back to the track and our 1.5 60ft's were straight as an arrow. In ways the Panhard bar is like a streetable anti-roll bar. Since with anti-roll bars when driving with them on the street you are suppose to disconnect the links or they will break or get all out of whack.

 

[Lightning&Mach1]

Is a oil filter relocation kit really needed?

For a mach 1 it is NOT, since there isn't an oil cooler there.

 

[Bmeagher]

For a mach 1 it is NOT, since there isn't an oil cooler there.

I never really looked close enough for a cooler, but I didn't think they had one.
Perfect, I'm sold on it all. I'll order it after New Years along with the ftbr dr rotors.

 

[KzooMuscle]

Team Z sells outstanding K member kits. I just got mine on black friday and its a solid kit! Highly reputable company and none of that extra modifying necessary

 

[blacksheep-1]

I think it is good advice to run something other than the UPR K member for what you are doing, I happen to be a fan of UPR but only for drag racing, and have actually had good customer service from them. In any case, good move on the MM (or similar design, other than Granatelli). With regards to the rear of the car, it is a design fiasco, the "triangulated 4 link" is designed to both center the diff and locate it front to rear. As the car sits, from the factory, the rear suspension is not in bind, the instant you change ride height the rear is in bind, because both of the upper bars are fighting each other. You now have the upper links fighting each other and the only way you can make this worse is to add stiffer upper control arms, or a panhard bar. You will now have both upper links searching for their arc along with the PHB which is competing for it's own arc. You have a couple of choices, go with urethane, or other type of lower control arms and use the skankiest, most worn out uppers that you can find. This will still allow the uppers to center the diff, but do it in a more compliant manner. Having tracked and autocrossed these cars in the past (and present) this was the setup that worked the best with the triangulated 4 link. Even with that, the car would attempt to "find center" coming out of a corner and this usually led to a condition known as "snap oversteer" as the diff centered itself. Unless you are regulated by rules (as I was) I'd dump the "triangulated 4 link" for something better.
You have several options..
You can install a PHB then remove one of the upper control arms, (known as a redneck 3 link) this actually works well, until you rip the single arm out of the floor pan.
You can find the kit that changed the upper links to a single link and install the PHB, I don't know if those kits are still around anymore, but you could fab one up.
You can install an "truck arm" (called a "torque arm" by the newbs) style suspension which is probably the most effective way to go
Install a Watts link
Find an IRS, but it adds weight and has it's own problems.

Again DO NOT install a PHB with the stock 4 link, or for that matter install fabricated (stiff) upper control arms

As for the front, the big issue is once you lower the car, you also lower the roll center, while this is not an entirely bad idea, lowering it underneath the pavement is not such a good idea. To fix this (on the stock k member) is to use the higher (steeda 2x style) lower ball joints and the bump steer kit, most fabbed k -members have a method of dialing this problem out during the install.


Let me add some more to this the drag cars that I've done..that are required to use a "stock type" rear suspension use one of these.. http://www.uprproducts.com/mustang-chrome-moly-double-anti-roll-bar-kit.html and it has solved all of the fox-4 problems, trouble is, there is nothing there that will let a car handle at an autocross, in fact, it will pretty much destroy the street handling of the car.