Sway bars.. combo or just the rear?

[Pewter2K1]

I was looking under my car and I see the front is pretty big, but the rear is small, real small. Is the 1LE front worth gettting?? My friend just replaced the rear in his car and it seems to corner real good, able to get the rear to swing out real easy. Would I be set with just the rear, or should I just get the combo? I know the rear is easy to put in, but how is the front??

[Dominic]

Yes, buy both. If you just buy the rear it will *really* understeer, and believe it or not the front one does help - especially with the higher durometer insulators.

[North Cali Autocrosser]

Call me crazy but wouldn't that be called "oversteer" since it would make the rear end come around and steer more.

[Dominic]

No.

Stiffening the rear causes oversteer
Stiffening the front causes understeer
Loosening the rear causes understeer
Loosening the front causes oversteer

[Pewter2K1]

So wait... its oversteer.... you say it yourself. isnt oversteer good?? i mean i would want the rear to slide before i dig the nose in

[DominusEtDeusNatus]

When I put the 1LE in the rear only for a few weeks car oversteered ALOT. I could spin them tires like no other on turns. It was fun at first, but then I got to putting the front in and the car feels great. It's like night and day compared to the stock V6 setup.

[V6Bob]

"isnt oversteer good??" was asked.

For the street, John D.s words from another thread:

"For most people in most situations, having the fronts let go first, is safer. When this happens you just let some of your speed scrub off, and then you're fine and can still steer. Oversteer is often terminal (you spin out, not recoverable, not steerable)."

For the track, "Corner exit oversteer thrills the spectators and makes the inexperienced (or ignorant) driver feel heroically fast. In some ways it's a pity that it isn't the fast way around the race track."- Carroll Smith, Drive to Win

[Guardsman]

It will cause oversteer, and considering that you'd be going from a 15mm bar to a 21mm bar, it probably be pretty significant. Personally, I would rather have oversteer, because it is more easily controlled, and gotten out of, as long as you're not driving like a maniac. If you lose control of the front end, you lose the majority of your braking capability, and all of your steering. If you lose the rear end, you can still brake and steer. That's one of the reasons that I don't like front wheel drives, for the same reasons, only worse.
Take a front wheel drive, and find a nice snowy and/or icy road sometime, and take corner at a pretty good clip, and see if you can recover the car before you hit something. Once you lose your steering and braking, you're just along for the ride.