2005+ Mustang Rear Lower Control Arm Tech
Improve your Mustangs traction and handling with Maximum Motorsports Rear Lower Control Arms. Taming the antics of the rear axle is critical to raising the Mustang's performance level. Excessive rear axle motion allowed by the stock suspension causes poor traction and poor handling characteristics. Whether your goal is to improve your Mustang's launch or its cornering ability, we have the control arms you need. The superior design of MM Rear Lower Control Arms increases traction and handling performance.
Specific tech about the MM 2005+ Street Performance control arm series
Specific tech about the MM 2005+ Extreme Duty control arm series
Specific tech about the MM 2005+ Road Race control arm series
2005+ Mustang Rear Lower Control Arm FAQs
Scroll down for an overview of MM rear lower control arms.
Drag Racing-It's the Launch
Lowering your 60-foot times will lead to a lower ET. Improving the launch by a tenth of a second usually results in a 2/10 lower ET. In the search for a better launch, racers often attempt to improve bite off the line by installing better rear lower control arms. Just what constitutes a "better" rear lower control arm? While replacing the stamped-steel OEM units with stiffer tubular arms is an improvement, the real key to a better rear lower control arm is in the bushings.
Street Performance and Road Racing-It's the Control
All of the forces that accelerate the car, as well as much of the braking loads, pass through the rear lower control arms. In stock form, the excessive deflection allowed by the original rubber bushings prevents the rear axle from maintaining its correct position under the chassis. The axle is allowed to shift forwards, backwards, and skew at an angle under the car, leading to poor traction and poor handling.
To improve handling and traction it is vital to control the motion of the rear axle. The key to better axle control is in the bushing design. A proper bushing design will provide precise location of the axle while also allowing the motion required for the suspension to function. MM has achieved the twin goals of great handling and great traction with each of our different series of rear lower control arms.
Standing Starts and RLCA Bushings
Urethane rear lower control arm bushings should not be used for any type of drag racing. The statement "any type of drag racing" includes any hard standing start launch, whether it is at the drag strip or a stoplight on the street. Hard launches, when the engine RPMs are increased significantly and the clutch is released abruptly, put an enormous sudden shock load on the control arm bushings. Urethane bushings will suffer a shortened lifespan from this type of use. The higher the power level, the stickier the tires, and the better everything else that helps a car launch more quickly is, the greater the stress on urethane bushings, and the shorter their lifespan. If hard launches are part of your lifestyle, then you want the MM Extreme-Duty Rear Lower Control Arms.
Specific tech about the MM 2005+ Extreme Duty control arm series
Good Research is the Basis of Good Engineering
Instead of simply making control arms the same way as everyone else, MM's designs are the result of extensive analysis of what actually occurs when the rear suspension moves over bumps, and during body roll. We then designed control arms that provide what is needed to improve traction and handling.
To improve handling and traction it is vital to control the motion of the rear axle. The key to better axle control is in the bushing design. A proper bushing design will provide precise location of the axle while also allowing the motion required for the suspension to function.
Stop wheel hop
Wheel hop is caused by axle wind-up. Axle wind-up is caused by two independent deflections: the control arms, and the rubber bushings. MM's rear lower control arms eliminate the primary causes of axle wind-up. Our tubular arms are much stiffer than the stock control arm, and our spherical bearing designs eliminate the deflection of the soft stock rubber bushings.
It is commonly believed that as long as the rear lower control arm bushings do not deflect, they must be okay. Not true. Any up and down suspension movement causes the rear lower control arms to not only rotate on their pivots, but also to change their angularity, relative to their chassis-end and axle-end mounts. If the rear lower control arm bushings are not designed to accommodate this change in angularity, the suspension will tend to bind up and not move freely. That hurts traction, and can damage the mounts on the chassis for the rear lower control arms. While the repeated binding of suspension movement may not harm the steel of the axle-housing bracket because it is quite thick, the thin sheet metal of the chassis mounts will fatigue and eventually fail.
Installing rear lower control arms that allow proper articulation of the suspension will prevent torque box damage. The only proper rear lower control arm bushing for a drag race car is a spherical bearing, not a solid (pivot-only) style of bushing. Surprisingly to many, this is also the best design for a road-race car.
Specific tech about the MM 2005+ Street Performance control arm series
Specific tech about the MM 2005+ Extreme Duty control arm series
Specific tech about the MM 2005+ Road Race control arm series
2005+ Mustang Rear Lower Control Arm FAQs