Panhard Rod on a Leaf Spring Car

[High Plains Mopars]

But back to the original question...Is it really needed in a leaf spring car? Or is it just overkill and extra weight?

Robert

Are they really needed, no. Can they improve things, yes, depending on what you're doing with the car, how much power your putting down, and your driving style. I know for certain that the Plymouth and Dodge trans am cars of the 1970 seaons used panhard bars with their leaf spring suspensions and they managed to qualify at the front of the pack several times. I'd imagine other cars had them too, but I'm not familiar with who may have used them.

Provided you freed up the leafs to only act like springs and they are not binding againts the motion of the panhard, and it is built to be adjustable, you can use it to alter the rear roll center location which can have a big influence on corner exit bite.

Since it sounds like you simply placed in a spot to best accomodate all of your exiting hardware without considerations of impact to roll center location and I didn't see any mention of adding leaf spring pivots or other methods of freeing up the leafs to pivot, odds are it will not be as beneficial as possible and is adding extra weight.