How Bad Of An Idea Is This? ($500 Panther Daily Drifter Content)

So there are several abnormally cheap Panthers in my area. Given that I want to have something I can use and have fun with, I'm planning on selling the truck to buy one of these cars and turn it into a daily/drifter. Here's the plan for now.

-Decent seats

-Racequip camlock Harnesses

-Hydraulic E-brake (pullback)

-Towing Package 3.55 rear end (welded if an open unit).

-JMod

-Monotube shocks

-new rad hoses, t-stat, etc.

-Mustang GT CAI for induction noise

-Sound deadening removal

-semi-metallic pads

-oil cooler

Then I just need to get a proper Snell SA2015 helmet, and I can run down in Penticton with Drift Union.

How bad of an idea is this?

only flaw I see is trying to get a helmet. Soloperformance went from mid may to maybe mid june for mine to come in. And I've been having difficulties finding another one in my size for the price of the racequip. Otherwise, I fully support this idea, and am a little jealous because the few panthers for sale around here aren't worth salvaging.

I condone these actions, more so if you do a 5 speed swap

In reply to revrico:

I won't really be drifting until next season, so I'll just order my helmet after Christmas.

Personally, I recommend 4.10s, at a minimum...I put 4.10s in my '99 GT (switched from 3.27s) and it really woke the car up...should have actually gone with 4.30s!

In reply to marks93cobra:

4.10s would be fun, but I can swap in a whole 3.55 rear assembly without having to re-shim the diff. Besides, it will be my new daily, so some fuel economy would be nice.

Also, as of now, my truck is up on the local online classifieds, and someone is coming to see it tomorrow.

In reply to G_Body_Man:

Any gear change needs a reshim. Once you see how it works, different gear ratios are different ring gear thicknesses, youll understand why. And whenever you replace gears in a carier its ALWAYS best to check tooth engagement(painting yellow E36 M3 on to see where it wears). And the ford diff is like $200 and you can rebuild them with carbon fiber E36 M3 for another $100 or two makes zero sense to go welded, trust me welded sucks.

I too have been pondering the panther(p71 only for me) for the next dd. Only add turbo and stroll. Dads got a 2000 town car he inherited from my mothers dad and its too much fun to ignore.

In reply to chiodos:

I know that every in-carrier gear change needs a re-shim, I'm talking about bolting in a whole other used assembly from yoke to hubs. I know welded sucks, but I'm just trying to avoid shimming wrong, because gears are a bit of a PITA to install correctly at home. Maybe I'll just man up and put 4.10s and a rebuilt 28 spline MGT diff. We'll see.

Fwiw I love my lx sport and miss it dearly. I like the way the panther pulls, I didn't even have upgraded gears and I enjoyed it

I ordered a Bell qualifier sa2015 for 118$ 2 day shipping from amazon.

If I had the same idea my plan would be...:

06+ for easy intake noises. 04+ second best.

P71 package for 3.55 gearing stock with Trac Lock. Go carbon clutches for pure DD ability or weld for real fun. Also gets you an oil cooler and stiffer shocks.

Handbrake will get the car to skid but the auto WILL downshift and it will suck. Either figure out a way to totally disable engine braking and shift manually or manual swap it.

Addco rear bar paired with MGM or non P71 front bar. The thing will rotate so much you could not leave your driveway... Seriously just try this before the manual swap or handbrake. Maybe throw some airbags in the rear springs to stiffen them even more.

If you still like the car after this the rear control arms will be shot. Upgrade them. ADTR has the good ones. The cheaper are the ones I have been trying to kill without success.

TLDR- do it, it will be fun.

In reply to Ross413:

This is good stuff.

I'd stick to '03 and up, the pre '03 steering sucks. No feel or feedback whatsoever.

Even though this is a '99:

In reply to The_Jed:

I would go 03+, but even 03s are north of $2k where I live. I'm looking at 92-97 cars. Mind you, I'm used to terrible steering. Since my truck is off insurance right now (it expired a few weeks ago), I've been driving a 2013 Hyundai Sonata. It's terrible in terms of feedback, but it's not unusable.

G_Body_Man wrote: In reply to Ross413: This is good stuff.

Ross's CV is pretty berkeleying cool.

In reply to Furious_E:

Wow! You're not kidding.

One more thing missing from this plan.

Though you said you wanted this to be a daily so this might not be the best idea.

(I mean the exhaust if it wasn't obvious, though putting the whole thing on a stock car chassis might be fun)

About 10 years ago Bondurant racing tried drifting one of these cars, don't remember exactly what one. But at speed sideways, they began to get crazy bad wheel hop. So my one recommendation would be to make sure you get the rear suspension sorted out property.

HunterBenz wrote: About 10 years ago Bondurant racing tried drifting one of these cars, don't remember exactly what one. But at speed sideways, they began to get crazy bad wheel hop. So my one recommendation would be to make sure you get the rear suspension sorted out property.

Stiffest springs possible, perhaps.

As a whole, this doesn't seem like an awful idea. When drifting, a long wheelbase makes the car more stable at higher angle, although it is slower to transition. Vaughn Gittin Jr. drifted straight axle cars for years with success, so IRS is not a necessity. The 5-speed swap would definitely be helpful, as trying to manually shift a column shift while drifting seems like a recipe for disaster.

Er, uh, reliable witnesses report that the Bondurant Crown Vics were excellent drift cars. And I, er, those witnesses never experienced wheel hop.

There is a very good chance they fixed the issue. I don't know much about the cars as I worked with several teams back then, not one was theirs. The major issues were seen during private events. It almost looked like the car was going to lose the rear end at one point. If I remember correctly they were using cobra 5-speeds. transmissions.

Considering that my first real drifting experience was in a bone stock 05 S197 GT, I'm kinda used to wheel hop right now. It helps if you don't have much mechanical sympathy.

In terms of locking it into gear, would a ratchet shifter lock into second for this application?

I went to watch a drift event a year or so ago and saw a driver sliding one of these with awesome skill and precision. I went and chatted with the driver. It was a bone stock police car and automatic. He told me it was all about controlling the weight transfer.