TECH: Sway-bar setups...??

[mrb1]

The 24mm Whiteline bar is fine on the front with the stock rear bar. However just be careful with the rear bar it's easy to upset the balance of the car.
Going from a stock 16mm rear bar to a 22mm rear bar is a bit radical in my opinion.

According to the Whiteline catalogue swaybar diameter conversion chart (page 45).

stock 21mm front to 24mm front = 71% stiffer.
stock 16mm rear to 22mm rear = 257% stiffer :S

So that's why I have 18mm which is 60% stiffer.
This means I have kept the front/rear increase about the same and therefore the front/rear bar balance about the same as stock.
Which means the car will sit flatter but generally feel/handle the same.

Anyhow my general advice is be very careful with the rear it's easy to upset it.

[WANTSOM]

JJH asked:

WANTSOM & Cookie,

With your coilover setups, have you ever tried running without the rear swaybar?

When I was talking with Nolans who did the coilover setup for me (it was the prototype for all the others he did for the Starions he recommended setting the car up without the rear bar connected and working on the damper/spring settings then reconnecting the sway bar as a fine tuning tool. He recommended staying with the standard sway bars - thought they were plenty stiff enough.

Spring rates and dampers are the key to good handling then sway bar is a fine tuner.

There is something to be gained by trying different sway bars but dont compensate for poor suspension settings by just a sway bar change. I hope that helps a bit.

[Barney]

It depends on what you want the car to do! and what suits your driving style!

When i was running 235 r comp tyres with standard sway bars i had extreme body roll, the thicker sway bars reduced it alot. It also helped reduce tyre wear on the front outer edge (tyre rolling over) although the sway bar wasnt the cause of the tyre wear.

So i believe the sway bars are for fine tuning the suspension, first sort out your springs, shocks, Kingpin Inclination angle, camber and the most overlooked and very important CASTER.

ASH

[Mr Ralliart]

I basically agree with Mark , although I think from memory , I went with a 19mm ? rear to match the 24mm front . This is PERFECT for Tarmac Rally and Track work .

One important thing , DO NOT try to control body roll with the bloody Springs and Dampers . This might be ok on a V8 Commodore but not on a real sports car . No matter what you do ,a Japanese car will always have some degree of bodyroll , they build them to . If you have eliminated all bodyroll then your suspension is not functioning as suspension AT ALL and is DANGEROUS .

Yes the Swaybar is for fine tuning but not that fine . It can make a huge difference to whether the car under or over steers .

It sounds like Old Farts suspension is basically what I did with the Tarmac car (except for custom springs) and anyone who has driven that car will tell you how awesome it handles . Therefore I would strongly recommend a similar setup , combined with adjustable camber , to anyone to get the best real handling for your Starion . This setup is very sensitive to alignment changes therefore you'll be able to tune it to your driving style quite well .



Toys , if you need a hand with Spring rates , PM me .

[S0LJAH]

hey guys im looking at uprgrading the front sway bar on my lancer to one out of a sigma

my stock ones is around 17mm i believe and the sigma one is said to be something like 24mm

is this a good idea?

i always believed stiffer was better but after reading this maybe it could b too stiff

[cheaterparts]

Chooky, currently has 22mm Front and Rear setup on his Group A running 450/300 Springs Front/Rear respectively.

Any thoughts on this ?

He does have other sizes to swap around the Front and Rear ones for along with different springs.....

just a thought here is that on slicks - that would lend itself to a stiffer set up
most treaded tyres will grip up with a softer set up

[S0LJAH]

hey guys im looking at uprgrading the front sway bar on my lancer to one out of a sigma

my stock ones is around 17mm i believe and the sigma one is said to be something like 24mm

is this a good idea?

i always believed stiffer was better but after reading this maybe it could b too stiff

anyone?

turns out stock is 15mm and sigma is 23mm

according to the thing on the first page that means it will be 1600 more torsional rigid :?

[Starion_Turbo]

15mm - 23mm is 453% uprated.