Thunderstruck95
2nd Gear Poster

They also prevent the armrest from sagging in the middle. I added them to my '97, plus I added a custom support below.
On the 97, the left side of the armrest, and subsequently the weight of your arm, rest on two rubber knobs, one at the forward end, the other at the back. Both of them, oddly, support the armrest from below the foam part, not the solid plastic. So those little knobs literally push themselves into the foam.
The old style cupholder on the other hand sits on the plastic of the compartment below and supports the armrest plastic piece above. I'd say that makes a difference. It closes the gap between the compartment and the armrest.
That said...I'm sure there are other factors that play into armrest disintegration. Heat, usage, adhesive degradation, user weight,...
But in combination with my custom support, the old cupholders provide a perfectly solid armrest that doesn't bend down at all.
The armrest cup holders work fine for a 12oz can, that's about it. After the manual transmission swap I found they are actually better located, and I was using them almost exclusively. The center console cup holders were in the way when shifting.
It was neat having 4 cup holders for a while though.
I only ever really use the cupholders on long interstate trips, where I’m not really shifting that much anyway.
I would have possibly never done the handbrake swap.
With the foot parking brake gone more room for my left foot when not clutching.
Also... Armrest cup holder working great with 12oz can, and oversized phone fitting in radio cubby
View attachment 8125
The thing I hate about using those cup holders, as the picture fully illustrates, is that I will still want to rest my elbow on the center area. But it's not there anymore and what is there, that thin edge, is really uncomfortable. I wish they had changed the design so that the outer frame of the flip door would remain but a smaller inner door could swing up for the 2 cans or cups. That would leave just enough of the rounded edge and top for my elbow to rest on. I still have that part of my '95 console but I switched to the '97 center section for the more normal cupholders. Of course those ones are right up against the shifter so it's a bit annoying if you have a couple tall cups in there but still much easier to tolerate on long trips.
<chuckle>I don’t buy that, the cupholders is held onto the armrest with a weak little magnet for one, for two I’ve never seen a 97 armrest any more bowed than a 94-96 one
The other thing is having gone from foot brake to SC handbrake and back to foot brake is the leverage is night and day more effective with the footbrake. I used to leave the car in first on inclines in addition to the handbrake but now it’s just set it and forget it.
This is my reasoning for recently redoing the rear brakes with all new parts. Figured I might as well use the bigger cobra rotors while I'm at it.
I don't understand why, but there was a huge improvement with the parking brake strength when I replaced just the rear calipers on my previous MN12 Tbird. With the new calipers it could actually slow down the car and hold it no problem on a hill.
The parking brake on my Cougar has always been weak, even when it had the foot brake. Hopefully all the new parts and more aggressive brake pads make an improvement.