32mm sway bar installed!!

[V6Bob]

Re: 32mm sway bar installed!!

I got ws6 rims too. I did that trying to make it more stable because v6Bob said that the 21mm was too thick for our cars. I love the way my car handles with the way I have it. If I go around a corner and try to make the back end step out it does smoothly and predictibly. I feel that my car handles very well and would recommend the setup.

Sigh. Everyone please ignore the last post. But this is important. Your recommendation is not correct.

If you can "make the back end step out smoothly and predictably" on dry pavement when you're concentrating, the car has _way_ too much oversteer. Bigger rims don't help this, they just make the point at which it oversteers come later.

Two problems. The minor one is that it ain't fast. Any oversteer at all means the rear tires are overloaded. Overloaded rears can't accelerate the car maximally coming off a corner, you have to feather the gas.

The major one is that it ain't safe. What is smooth and predictable on dry pavement when you're concentrating can become an uncontrollable spin on wet pavement or when you make an emergency swerve to avoid something.

Look, the bottom line is that, if you can slide the rear on dry pavement, you have the wrong rear bar for the car. Your car would handle better with a smaller rear bar, rims or no rims. So I don't recommend the 21 rear. Why would you want something other than the best setup, when this is such an inexpensive thing to change? I know it feels cool to slide the rear, but it's not the hot setup.

Carroll Smith (who actually does deserve an "all hail"), in "Drive to Win". "The inexperienced driver feels heroically fast and the crowd is thrilled when the rear slides. In some ways it's a pity that it's not the fast way around the track." and "Every fast race car has some understeer".

[youngsc]

Re: 32mm sway bar installed!!

Carroll Smith (who actually does deserve an "all hail"

Sorry :bowdown: all hail Carroll Smith :bowdown:

That better now, wouldn't want to hail on the wrong person if they didn't deserve it.

[loser]

Re: 32mm sway bar installed!!

wouldnt a 19mm bar be safer with his set-up?

i love to upgrade my suspension, but i cant afford to lose any ground clearnce with my exhuast and the crappy roads, no springs for me :(


personally, i still think v6bob deserves alot of credit sence as long as ive been here he's be very helpful with everyone. despite having to say over and over 21mm is too much bar for us, he's still calm and helpful. he's one of the guys that make this site so great.

[youngsc]

Re: 32mm sway bar installed!!

look I can't keep going back and forth here, it's one or the other. We all can't be god's amongst men. lol

[silversixx]

Re: 32mm sway bar installed!!

I have a 35mm front and 25mm rear. It handles like a cat on carpet. But does tent to break the rear end lose a little easier than I think it should.

[matt3989]

Re: 32mm sway bar installed!!

how does a hollow 21mm bar compare to a solid 19? and what if you put more weight over the rear (ie battery relocation, or subs, or the t-top)?

[V6Bob]

Re: 32mm sway bar installed!!

how does a hollow 21mm bar compare to a solid 19? and what if you put more weight over the rear (ie battery relocation, or subs, or the t-top)?

Depends on the size of the hole. Could be stiffer (likely) could be less stiff (unlikely).

Putting weight on the rear will load the tires even more and increase oversteer. Not good. One reason the V6s have smaller rear bars is that their weight distribution is more rearward. So the rears are already relatively more loaded. V8s have a bigger rear bar to transfer some cornering load from the overloaded fronts to the rear.

Adding weight to a car to improve handling on dry pavement is never a good idea, anyway.

[matt3989]

Re: 32mm sway bar installed!!

but if the weight is gonna be in the car no matter what where is the best place for it? like the car battery.

my guess is that the battery will be better in the back for the quarter mile, but in the front for handling

is that right?

[V6Bob]

Re: 32mm sway bar installed!!

but if the weight is gonna be in the car no matter what where is the best place for it? like the car battery.

my guess is that the battery will be better in the back for the quarter mile, but in the front for handling

is that right?

Not necessarily. Generally, even a rear wheel drive car is better off with more weight rearward (up to a point) because the front wheels need all the help they can get turning the car. But suspension is a system, and getting the most out of a rearward weight distribution means tuning the car for it. And the front suspension on a 4th gen is way better than the rear. So, who knows?

What I was responding to was a post in which you suggested combining a 21 hollow swaybar with a more rearward weight distribution. That bar doesn't go well with a V6 on stock springs, and it would be worse if you put more weight on the rear wheels than stock.

It's all about balance, and it's very complicated. Modifying suspensions for better handling than stock on a performance car is difficult. The easiest handling mods for an fbody are better shocks and tires.