Panhard Rod

[Michael Brann <mbrann@domain.elided>]

As I own a '74 GTV I have found it very interesting and fun to read
everyone's opinion on the best GTV and in particular being able to read
about the experiences of others in their various restorations or
modifications.  With that said I thought I'd add my experience with adding
a panhard rod to my car and what the end results have been for me. Since I
had owned the car I had never been happy with the way the car handled under
hard braking while entering a turn.  It seemed to me that the rear end
tended to want to lift too much, at least for my taste.  After talking to a
number of people and learning that the rear roll height was noticably
higher than the front I decided that I wanted to add a panhard rod to lower
said roll height.  As my LSD needed a rebuild anyway so I decided to go
with the panhard rod available from Orion Engineering.  Their rod requires
that a steel bracket be welded to the axle tube which struck as much better
than any of doing it than the bolt-on types.  This of course requires that
the tube and in my case the LSD be shipped to Orion.  Orion did all of the
welding and also "tuned" the LSD at the same time.
    Upon my first test drive after the installation I saw an immediate and
big improvement under braking and turn in.  The rear end now feels firmly
planted and the car feels much more stable now.   I was able to drive the
car at Mid-Ohio before and after the installation and I must say the
addition of the rod has transformed the way I feel about the car.  I'm only
sorry that I didn't do it sooner.

Mike Brann
'74 GTV
OVAROC

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