Marquis / Town Car Woods Build

[Robert Moses]

Just spitballing here.

But wondering what it would take to do a panther build that is moderately fast, has absurd grip / dry cornering ability, and can smash through deer at speed with minimal damage.

Background: I recently purchased a Golf GTI which seems to attract woodland creatures with some regularity. Over dinner the other night my state patrol friend half-jokingly suggested I get a ranch hand bar for my GTI. Which got me thinking. Panther frame rails are made for push bars. But what would it take to get one to GTI/Golf R levels of grip?

You'd want wider tires. Absurd offsets with fender flares, like a truck build but without the lift. How far could you go before you're shearing control arms?

You'd want a good LSD. My 2004 Marquis was open diff, not great in the mud. The Golf kids swear by wavetrac, which sells options for 9 inch axle with 31/33/35 splines. Would this fit or is it just a Mustang thing?

You'd want springs and swaybars. My 04 had P71 bars and aftermarket coilovers to replace the airbag when it sprang a leak. What is better than P71?

You'd want some engine/trans mods geared towards midrange accel. Stock 4.6 is fine for 0-60 IMO but 50-80 needs to happen in a fingersnap, for passing.

What else? P71 driveline for vibration? Anything I haven't thought of?


I feel like doing this off a Town Car or a nicely optioned Marquis (vs eg P71) would be hilarious because the bench seat has zero side bolstering, so in turns your passengers would just be sliding everywhere. But how doable is it.

[FordMan77]

Whoa, that's a tall order. How deep are you're pockets? You're comparing a Golf GTI to a Panther platform which is easily double the weight and not built in any fashion near a GTI.

You can do it without the rediculous fender flares. Keep that for the trucks. Take a good look at ADTR.net, do some reading here and see what you come up with. I'd shy away from the TownCar and stick with a Vic or Marquis. TC's aren't designed to be anything like that, and stock CV's/Merc's really aren't either, but can be made to be.

Keep the rear air system. Airbags don't cost much and work just fine. I have no issue pitching my 03 LX Sport with the RAS, and the plus side is if I decide to lower the car then all I have to do is move the sensor on the Watts link and it drops. No messing with springs.

[P72Ford]

He's not active on here anymore, but mrltd's Country Squire was an autocross savage with a much milder build; actually mostly stock parts.

[gadget73]

Might also want to look up the Shooting Brake / Boulevard Cruiser. That had a rather substantial "deer killer" as its late owner called it. It wasn't a handler but the big bar on the front might give you some ideas.

GoodSamaritan also had a lifted / offroad wagon build. Also not a handler, but it had ground clearance and I'm pretty sure he had a fairly stout bar up front.

both of those are boxes though, basically none of the chassis stuff from those carries to 03+, but yes its certainly possible to make one of these cars handle better than it seems like they should without extremely crazy effort.