Anthony k

http://www.jegs.com/i/Ford+Racing/397/M-5649-R/10002/-1

Replace your weak factory rear control arms with Ford Racing's upgraded units. Control arms will help eliminate that ''wandering'' pony rear-end. Not only will they give you more control on high-speed sweepers they will also keep your pinion angle in check in drag racing applications

click link for price. not a misprint either!

jamesdem1123

Wow only 2-3 times the cost of the competition! Do they really expect to sell these at all? My guess is that they're take offs from the fr500 and cobra jet vehicles

Anthony k

they are service replacements

SoundGuyDave

From the FR website:

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They are "service replacements," but they're designed for the FR500C, which is a "spec" car for a specific Grand Am racing series. They will fit the GT, but they're not intended for that application. Yeah, they're pricey, but what race car parts (NOT hot street, please!) aren't?

SONICBOOST

Some will pay that becuase it is a ford part!

GrnT

Nuts.

Tsbird1994

Maximum Motorsports is full on race gear, and I just got their new LCAs with the spherical rod ends for ~$215 shipped! They're AMAZING!!!!!

GRAYPNY

How loud are those spherical rod ends? I have always heard that they are great for a full race car (who cares about noise then) but on a street car they will drive you nuts.

Anthony k

show me, since your out to defend a TOTAL RIP OFF, another set of lower control arms for a domestic vehicle that even comes close to that price...........i'll wait
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.you cant. there arent any, i know the vendor that is making them for "ford racing" he cant believe what they are charging for them, after what he has into them and what he is charging Fraud, i mean Ford to make them. he did all the testing too. he is making a run of 100 pieces for Fraud Racing right now. when those are boxed and labled (by him, NOT Fraud Racing, just another expense, picked up by the manufacture) he is making one more set for me. as a personal favor. same jig, same parts. 1/4 of what ford wants for them. WHICH by the way is STILL more than he charged Fraud Racing to make them, powdercoat them, wrap them, box them and deliver them!

i HAVE an actual race car, i have a TOP of the line rear suspension, from one of the TOP builders in the business, and my uppers, lowers, sway bar. cost as much as what ford wants for those bushed STREET lowers. look at any REAL race car and you wont find many bushings, certainly none in the suspension components. you want ZERO deflection in suspension.

i have Team Z stuff on my 86 street/strip car. double adj on top and single adj on lowers. all solid, with a Anti-rollbar (ARB) and its not that loud, people for the most part are whiners, every little creak and rattle is the end of the world, turn up the radio, or install headers and/or exhaust...you wont beable to hear it. would i daily drive them????? no probably not. why? cause i dont have too. if it was my only car, then i would have bushings.

07 GT/CS

The Ford ones look near identical to the CHE, Steeda, and J&M tubular LCA's. How many ways can somebody make a tubular LCA with polyurethane bushings? I am also amazed at the price and wonder why anyone would pay that much money. If having a Ford part is that important, I say get the J&M and stick a Ford Racing sticker on it. Nobody would know the difference.

SoundGuyDave

Dude, take some Prozac or Ritalin, or something... I'm not out to defend Ford Racing in any way, and for the record, I have none of their parts on my car. My objection was the assertion that these were "service replacements" for the 2005-2008 Mustang GT. They're not. Period. I also commented that REAL race parts are stupidly expensive in comparison to the "street" versions of the same parts.

I won't go into the business end of specifying, designing, stocking, distributing, or marketing parts either, but make no mistake, they all add to the cost of any given part. Are these control arms radically overpriced for what they are? You bet. If you're running an FR500C in Grand Am, can you use any other control arm? Nope. Does Ford Racing offer racer-net discounts to the teams? I bet they do...

You have a drag-modified Fox-body street car, and that's cool, BUT the FRPP part is NOT intended for your car (which is out of production), or for drag racing, but is intended for the S197 chassis, and for road racing. Apples and oranges.

And yes, I know ALL about the Maximum Motorsports LCAs and PHB, I've got them on my car...

The point I was making in this whole thing is that 1) "race" parts (FR500C, not Mustang GT) will necessarily be more expensive than "street" parts because the R&D has to be amortized across a much smaller quantity run. 2) You can't compare apples and oranges. By this logic, the Cammer-R crate motor (~$30K) is an absolute rip-off, since you can buy a 3V crate motor for around $6K. They are NOT the same motor, though, are they?

The next question is more of an ethical one: Assume that company "A" spent a bunch of money developing an aftermarket part for a car, and then brought it to market for a price of "X". Now, assume that company "B" reverse-engineered the part made by company "A", and then brought it to market for a fraction of the price. Company "A" developed the part and did their testing under race conditions, and didn't bring it to market until all the bugs were worked out. Company "B" made sure their version fit on the one test car they had access to, then went into production with it. Who has the "better" part? Why buy the Maximum Motorsports control arms, since you can get the "same thing" from Granatelli? WHEN the Company "B" part fails under competition conditions, and the Company "A" part doesn't, what is the value of the less expensive part? When you have the Company "B" part on the car, and it FAILS the tech inspection, because it's not the spec part required for the race series, what is the value of the Company "B" part?

Comparing drag-racing to road-racing is also comparing apples to oranges. The needs of each type of racer are generally diametrically opposed, and a car set up for one will generally do poorly at the other. Look at cages, for example. To a drag-racer, a road race cage is stupidly expensive. Why pay $4000 for a custom 8-point cage for a car that MIGHT hit mid-12's on a good day? Why install more than a 4-point rollbar that can be had for $450? NASCAR door bars? Puh-leez... On the flip side, the road-racer's obsession with brakes is crazy. Pads that need to be heated up to work? Uber-huge brakes with forced-air ducts that weigh an EXTRA 80lbs? All you need is brakes enough to slow you down ONCE... Products that are engineered for one application are not necessarily the best for the other.

Do you get what I'm talking about?

metroplex

I love the stock suspension of the S197 GT. It's not the best for road courses but it's a good compromise between a soft mushy touring car and a track car. I'd never want to drive a race car as a daily driver.

blkstang06

671.99 + shipping FRPP or 114.55 + shipping from J&M