In stock form, the excessive deflection allowed by the original rubber bushings prevents the rear axle from maintaining its correct position under the chassis. “All of the forces that accelerate the car, as well as much of the braking loads, pass through the rear lower control arms. In the process, those not-so-strong arms and compliant rubber bushings also suck the life and performance out of your hot ride.īy removing the rubber-bushed factory arms from the equation and replacing them with stiffer, more performance-oriented pieces, you’ll gain greater feel of the road.ĭepending upon which type of control arm bushing you use, there will be an accompanying increase in road noise over stock as urethane bushings transmit more noise than the OEM rubber pieces, and the solid rod-end design increases NVH transmission even more, but both urethane and rod-ends offer a large increase in performance capabilities over the factory items regardless of the intended use. Factory control arms are typically manufactured with two things in mind – cost and ride quality.įor that reason, they are typically constructed from stamped steel forms and loaded with rubber bushings that have been designed to suck all of the road noise out of the chassis. Replacing your factory rear control arms can provide many benefits, from improved handling in the twisties to better straight-line performance if the dragstrip is your thing.
The urethane design is much more robust and works to control axle forces as they are transmitted through the control arm. Here’s a side-by-side view of the differences between an OEM bushing (bottom) and a greasable urethane bushing (top). In the Mopar realm, the 2005-14 Chrysler 300C, Dodge Charger/Challenger/Magnum all use the same type of independent rear suspension – three links on each side, with a pair of trailing arms and quartet of upper lateral control arms (front and rear on each side).Īlthough the rear suspension in the Mopar products is independent, the reason you’d want to replace the arms is the same as the other platforms. Fifth-Gen Camaros (2010-’14) make use of an independent rear suspension with lower control arms, trailing arms, and toe rods. Although the design was slightly different the overall concept is the same. GM’s Third and Fourth-Gen Camaro/Firebird platform used a torque arm/Panhard bar/lower trailing arm arrangement. In addition, the ’99-’04 Cobra used an independent rear suspension which we’ll touch on briefly. There are three different styles of suspension that have been used in the late-model Mustang – the four-link trailing arm arrangement used in the ’79-’04 chassis and the three-link/Panhard Rod arrangement used in the ’05-’14 models. While we certainly can’t cover each and every domestic performance-car suspension design for the purposes of this article, it’ll be helpful to understand some of the popular styles and how they function. For this advice we went to Maximum Motorsports, Team Z Motorsports, Kenny Brown Performance, BMR Suspension, and Spohn Performance. This guide should help make a better-educated decision about what’s best for your own project, your goals, needs, and wants. In the interest of simplifying the process, we have decided to do much of the legwork for you in this article, where we’ll discuss different materials and designs that are available – with the industry’s foremost experts. Aftermarket rear suspension pieces are a dime a dozen there are so many companies in the marketplace offering these items that you can dial up your favorite retailer and have your choice of literally dozens of tubular control arms for your car, regardless of whether you’re cruising a late-model Mustang, Camaro, or Mopar product like the Challenger or Charger.
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