Optimal front sway for a 1.7 ? Options

[Literati914]

I believe, if I’m not mistaken, there was a 13mm front sway bar for the 912 cars.. and I was wondering if that wouldn’t be more appropriate for a 1.7L 914 rather than the stock oem 15mm. I’m not sure if anyone bothers with a ARB on a 1.7L, but the 13mm ones are fairly easy to come by, cause everyone upgrades to bigger. So that’s a plus. Thoughts?


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[horizontally-opposed]

Great discussion, and I've long wondered about adding a rear ARB.

Consensus when I added a front Weltmeister ARB and 140lb rear springs in the 1990s—hard won by a super active autocross and time trial community around the 914, presumably based on lap times + handling dynamics—seemed to be:

> Weltmeister front ARB, no rear ARB
> 140lb rear springs
> Konis (red for more street, yellow for more track)
> Lowered and aligned
> Widest rubber you can fit

I followed that recipe and also thought the car handled really well, both for autocross and for back roads. But this isn't 30 years ago, and I'm here to learn!

[Superhawk996]

I followed that recipe . . .

The only real problem is that what is good for autocross isn't always what you want for the street. AX tends to favor cars that are easy to rotate at low to moderate speeds. You very well find that ability to rotate isn't appreciated on a big highway cloverleaf sweeper taken at 2x or 3x posted speed. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/dry.gif)

Don't get me wrong, we all follow the recipe to a degree. The moral of the story, don't just follow blindly, tune to what suits you and know why you're doing it.

Following that AX recipe forces some ride degration with the 140# springs that might otherwise not be needed had we opted for a softer spring and a smallish rear bar.

Don't get me wrong, I largely followed the same recipie you laid out when I got started back in the early 90's with suspension and chassis tuning and didn't fully understand the tradeoffs I was making. Not everyone want's to go to all the time, expense, and trouble to to learn how tune. That's OK as long as they know they are making tradeoffs in the process. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)