First mod any new Mark owner should do.

LaserSVT

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Braces!!

I can not believe how much better the entire car is with all the SCP braces! I did the front support braces several months back and was plesantly suprised with them. Well just last night I bolted up the firewall brace in anticipation of having it welded on today. I also installed the SCP IRS brace and its one of the greatest mods I did to my car. It was simple to install, cheap and works perfect! The quality and precision of the part is really incrediable for such a low production hand made piece.
So this morning I leave the house and hammer some corners to see if I could feel a difference with just the IRS brace as my front braces still need to be welded. I could feel the rear of the car bite through the turn like never before. I started pushing it harder and it just continued to stay planted. I gave up trying to kick the tail out after my g-meter said 1.01g's and I started to get nauseaus. :lol: The car can go so fast through a turn it started to scare me. I did have some push on the nose but am addressing that.

After I was done playing around and hit the highway I noticed yet another benifit. The cars rear rides SOOOOOO much better now! Wasnt expecting that! I know why it rides better, its cause the shocks and springs now have total controll where as before the LCA mounts could flex before the shock would dampen the impacts of expansion joints.
Fast lane changes are also 20x better. We all have felt the tail wiggle some when changing lanes fast and accelerating hard, well no more! It is rock freakin solid!

Then when I got to Waco I had the front firewall to k-member braces welded in and yet again was shocked by the difference! Front end bites hard and the steering dont wobble when you hit bigger bumps now. Got rid of 60% of the push and my new sway bar should help with the rest.

Excellent mods for very little cash and the quality is superb!





Now for some people that wonder why they work I will try and explain. For those of you that know how camber, castor and toe works you can skip all this.


Toe: That is how the tires are situated in relation to the opposite side. Toe in is the leading edges of the tires are pointed more to the center of the car. Imagine pigen feet how their toes are pointed inward.
Car will respond faster to steering inputs but also be darty and wonder all over.
Toe out is like a ducks feet with the leading edges pointed outward. Car becomes able to track straight easier but is less responsive to steering inputs.


Caster: Its basically wheelbase settings by adjusting the front nuts position on the strut rods. Its the relation to how straight up and down the struts are in relation to the car. Look at the side of the cars front wheel and thats the setting that centers the wheel in the wheel well. If the strut were leaning foreward then thats negative caster (bad) and if its leaning to the rear then thats positive caster. Our cars like somewhere around 5*.


Camber: Looking at the tires tread if the lower part of the tire sticks out farther then the top then thats negative camber and if the top is outward more thats positive camber. For a regular road car you want that at close to flat as you can with just a hair of negative camber. Mine is more agressive as I love the corners so when my car is in its lower position I have 1.2* negative camber in the rear and .9* negative in the front because the front of our cars camber changes drastically when the suspension moves.







OK so here is how the IRS brace helps make the car handle better. By bracing the LCA mounts to each other that keeps the rear outside tire from going into positive camber during hard turns since that mount no longer flexes inward. That also eliminates it from adding toe out during the corner. With the toe out the car feels like its sliding and you get front end push.
Now you no longer have that issue. :) Also since the LCA mounts dont flex that meens the shock can now do its job and absorb impacts instead of the mount flexing first.



With the front end braces the k-member is now positivly located. What that allows is for the k-member to no longer move foreward or back which eliminated the toe and caster change during bumps and hard cornering. It makes the steering much more predictable and allows for much less heading corrections while in a corner. That meens higher speeds as you can smothly track a turn and not upset the cars balence by adjusting the steering input angle cause the car changed it because the k-member flexed backward causeing it to reduce caster and have too much toe in.




I hope this helps some people here. I would have never believed how much better these simple pieces made the car behave if I didnt see first hand. They are worth their weight in gold and if I buy another Mark they will be my very first mod.



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I don't think I need them......my car goes straight when I let go of the wheel.

:D


I heard you dash will stop squeaking after you install these.
Seems like there worth every penny they cost.


Too bad I'm broke :(
 
Nice write up on the braces, they do change the personality of the Mark. If I had to drive my Mark with the front braces removed, it would feel like it was going to self destruck on each pot hole.

I also touched up the weld points with black rustoleom paint for the rust, during my last oil change.

I still need to install IRS brace and the diff bushings, they are not doing any good in the box.
 
Pulling 1G with a Mark Vlll is not bad, where is that Road racer that wants to spend $750?
 
Great job, and even nicer review.





Jeff
 
Great info about the braces, I'll have to get some someday :)

Thats going to be killer on your rear tires with that much rear camber. (when it lowers it will get worse too!)

You can go another 1.25* with the caster too and still be in spec. (or more if you want!)
 
Great info about the braces, I'll have to get some someday :)

Thats going to be killer on your rear tires with that much rear camber. (when it lowers it will get worse too!)

You can go another 1.25* with the caster too and still be in spec. (or more if you want!)
The 1.2 is at the lowered setting. At normal around town height its at .7* negative. And its fine, if you saw my last couple sets of tires you can see they wore in the center (last pair) and the ones before wore even across the face.

And I am fine at 5* caster. Car tracks great.
 
Texas motorspeed way benfit is calling u laser. I'd be good with just getting some frame rail made and front and rear shock towere. And bigger sway bar front and rear
 
I would love a shock tower brace but dont ever see that happening. :(
 
If we can get enuff guy to maybe do a group buy it be nice but the guy that does the braces for our car is pretty pricy and is not making anything at the moment. U can have a good metalist make u some just find some pic and copy them. Johnny L and he is in texas
 
Ah, your tires will thank you then :)
The rear shock brace would be easy enough to do, the front would take some planning. Try it yourself (the rear at least,) or ask whom ever did the welding for you?
I wish I hadn't sold my welder, I used to love mucking with stuff like this, though I wasn't the best welder, I could do it properly/strong, lol...
 
there is no way in hell that it pulled 1g, but it does sounds like a great set of mods. its good to hear that the ride quality is better too. i might start to look into those.
 
there is no way in hell that it pulled 1g, but it does sounds like a great set of mods. its good to hear that the ride quality is better too. i might start to look into those.
Yeah, the equipment could be wrong or I could have miss read it or just not know what I am talking about. Its not like I havent set up cars for track racing before.... oh wait I have. But I never had any really good handling cars... well maybe only 26 or so. Or is it that you dont think that with 4" more tread contact, lower center of gravity, more body lean controll, IRS deflection correction, front suspension deflection correction and a LSD as well as a compitent driver can make a Mark add .18gs worth or lateral grip?

Tell ya what, come down for a ride and you can watch the meters readings..... thats if your eyes arnt closed and your screaming like a pre teen girl.


Hey Sapperfire, you watched the gauge hit .9gs in our last run. Did the car feel like it was at its limits?
 
here i am

Pulling 1G with a Mark Vlll is not bad, where is that Road racer that wants to spend $750?
here i am
I AM IN!!!!!! now thats what i am talking about. u got 1.01gs with bags WOW!
what sway bar combo are you going with with the bags? i am still in wait on parts mode now!!! cant wait to drive my car i still only have about 5mi. of drive time in the m8 i want thoes braces so bad.


BRACES they made the ugly girl in elem. school do able for high school and they can make a m8 on bags pull a g. gotta love em
 
Hell just having airbag suspension and lowing the car hitting corners. Ssssssweet just like having braces
 
Op: are you on an air bag system or shocks because alot of those mods make a HUGE different between shock and air bag.

I'm about to go though "bushing hell'' and replace everything I can, I'm planning on doing what ever bolt on bracing I can. what are your recomendations. I want my car to still be a lincoln and ride like one. the milisecond the right get harsh or to firm all that stuff gets taken off. If I wanted a mustang I would have bought one.
 
The sway bar does make it a bit firmer but not much and it still rides like a Lincoln. I am running 1.25" Addcos. The trick with the bags is not to lower too much. When the springs are too deflated they loose their rates. I have the suspension controller set to ride higher then the sensor lowering but lower then the stock height and that seems to keep the bags at the best rate. Nice sticky tires make a HUGE difference too but a big help was the LSD. That allows you to keep the rear end loaded harder to keep it planted in the turns.
Another help is my Cobra brakes so I can enter a little latter as I can wait longer to brake and then with the 3.73's and LSD I can really hammer it at the apex and thats when I am pushing the 1 g load.

Sticky tires + sway bars + braces + LSD + lower center of gravity = 1g when driven well.



I do need to make a note here. I am not a pro driver but have raced for many years at road course events and have played with more cars then most of you will ever drive and have honed my skills over 20 years so I can drive a car well.
I dont want to see a n00b put all this stuff in their car and go and try and hammer it without the skillset to actually controll these cars. After .8Gs it takes know how to keep the car going well. Any mistake at that load can make her spin with no warning.
 
Some nitto 555 in the rear. Like laser said first the sway bar and also all the rear bushing. Aftermarket bags a bit better unless u install a gauge to know your height. If spring do tokoi or other stiff strut/springs.
 
The sway bar does make it a bit firmer but not much and it still rides like a Lincoln. I am running 1.25" Addcos. help was the LSD. That allows you to keep the rear end loaded harder to keep it planted in the turns.
Another help is my Cobra brakes so I can enter a little latter as I can wait longer to brake and then with the 3.73's and LSD I can really hammer it at the apex and thats when I am pushing the 1 g load.

Sticky tires + sway bars + braces + LSD + lower center of gravity = 1g when driven well.



QUOTE]

that.... see that right there. all that stuff. i need it. i gotta have it. o it is on. u just caused me to sell my convt bmw parts car. any body want an e30 vert for $1200 5spd w a 410 lsd in it.

i want that on a knifes edge feeling back i used to live for it
 
mmm looks great! I've been tossing around the idea of building a rear brace. and now that I see how the front ones work and are made,I just might do that too! :D

You car looks great as always man.
 
mmm looks great! I've been tossing around the idea of building a rear brace. and now that I see how the front ones work and are made,I just might do that too! :D

You car looks great as always man.

The rear can be a strong bar to fit between the shock mount
 
No offense but you guys seem like the guys that can "feel" the difference of a cold air kit, or putting on a larger maf w/ larger injectors. I LOVE the percentage of improvements. like 60%. Not to be a dick but if you could feel that much difference than you car was a total POS w/ all of it body welds coming apart. I can put my mark on the hoist and the doors open just fine.
 
No offense but you guys seem like the guys that can "feel" the difference of a cold air kit, or putting on a larger maf w/ larger injectors. I LOVE the percentage of improvements. like 60%. Not to be a dick but if you could feel that much difference than you car was a total POS w/ all of it body welds coming apart. I can put my mark on the hoist and the doors open just fine.

Hey, look, numbers:

g-meter said 1.01g's

can make a Mark add .18gs...
 

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