Hey...all you V-8 guys, Do you run a rear sway bar? Options

[wbergtho]

I don't have a rear sway bar and my car seems to handle pretty well w/ out one. What are your experiences with & w/out? If you are running one, what size are you using and what brand (or stock)?

Bill

[drive-ability]

Bill,
I don't run one because I installed my exhaust without providing space. I'm sure it's something worth looking into. I would assume something in the 1" range would be in the ballpark, but I really can't say. I am sure someone can add more.

[Andyrew]

A rear sway bar will allow you to run softer springs on the rear, Given your trani has LSD this would be fine.

Softer springs on the rear would let it squat and get better launches... Since the sway bar would move with the suspension, it wont affect the squatting ability, but would reduce body lean, affectivly stiffening up the rear end...

For cars with LSD.. a rear sway bar is good.

I was going to run one on my car. but then I got stiff springs, (now it spins the tires instead of gripping) and handles amazingly.. I will allow for one in the future, but currently. none is going on.

I would use a modified stock one. with adjustable stiffness and rod ends.
Just need a welder for that...


Andrew

[sean_v8_914]

NO!!!
Herb, tell him why, hehehe
truck, tree, truck, tree, truck, tree, TRUCK!

[byndbad914]

Hey Bill,

On my car (while it was running there for a few months) I clearly didn't need a rear sway bar as the car would oversteer like a mofo... needing a rear bar will somewhat depend on a lot of parameters, but a quick way to know is whether it oversteers or understeers in a turn. If you push, you might need one, but if it oversteers you definitely don't want to stiffen the rear up any more.

Also depends on how you drive. I needed to get understeer through one of the turns at Willow, so I went in hard and just before the rear wanted to come around near the apex I put in some throttle and forced the car to push through it. Big torque V8s are nice because throttle steer is always on tap. Takes some balls to do though - most people are afraid to power down when a car is "upset", let alone create slippage as it seems like you are just adding fuel to the fire... and on one lap I went through that turn then looped it on the next one (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

With all the changes I have now my story may be completely different... but with the low polar moment these cars have and the rear weight distribution the V8s have, you probably won't need one, unless you do some serious tracking of the car and a lot of suspension tuning in conjunction with adding the bar.