I won a gift certificate to National Parts Depot at a car show. At the time, I didn’t need any parts or know what to spend the gift certificate on. I ended up purchasing a Monte Carlo bar. I never really felt the car needed one, and was concerned that it might interfere with clearance around the air cleaner, distributor, or air conditioning compressor. I chose a curved bar just to be sure there wouldn’t be any clearance issues. If you want to start a “healthy” discussion on the Mustang forums, ask whether a curved or straight Monte Carlo bar is better. Then stand back and watch the fireworks.

I did want to touch on the effectiveness of the handling improvements I’ve done so far. That includes an export brace, Bilstein shocks, larger front anti-sway bar, roller spring perches, upgraded springs, and the Arning drop. In the past I had stated that this car would never be able to handle very well due to the weight of the big block engine. Recently I had an opportunity to push the car pretty hard around some twisties. This was the first time I really pushed the car since I lowered the upper control arms. Up until that moment I hadn’t really noticed much of a difference from the Arning drop. But I was very surprised how far I could push the car around the curves now. It was quite a difference, and I hadn’t hit the limit of how far I could push the car. So, I would call the suspension upgrades I had done to this point a success.

Back to the Monte Carlo bar. Once the bar arrived from NPD, I put it into storage until I had the urge to install it. That urge didn’t hit me for quite a while. Today was the day I chose to install the Monte Carlo bar. The installation was very straightforward, and I finished it up in just a few minutes. I didn’t drill holes for the bolts that go through the fender apron yet. I want to decide whether I will keep the bar on the car or not. I didn’t get a chance to drive the car after the install, so I don’t know if the bar made a noticeable improvement or not. I’ll update this post after I’ve had the chance to test it out.