Sway Bar Question Options

[Osnabruck914]

Well, the other day I noticed my '74 2.0 had something dangling underneath. Sure enough, those cheap nylon rear sway bar downlink bushings had failed again. I did not have any replacement bushings on hand, and with a car show coming up the next day, I just decided to remove the whole rear sway bar assembly until I could order and receive new bushings.

Driving without the rear sway bar, I was surprised to note that the car felt lighter and more responsive at the wheel. What's going on here? I thought having both bars was always a better option. Is it a psychological thing or is it real. Should I leave the rear bar off? I do not drive that aggressively nor do I autocross or rally.

I have read that it is not Kosher to drive with only a rear bar installed, but OK with just the front. Is that true?

Osnabruck914

[sixaddict]

Not to beg the question because Clay is smarter than me…..
My only question is why bars were not installed on all cars by the factory ….yeah I know costs……but

Tom Green and Dwight Mitchell were some of the fastest autocrossers in the Bay Area which set a lot of performance standards back in the day …..the golden age of 914s. They settled on no rear bars ……I believe.
Wondering if someone said that about Carroll Shelby.
Relax all …..just sayin (IMG:style_emoticons/default/dry.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/dry.gif)

[jcd914]

Not to beg the question because Clay is smarter than me…..
My only question is why bars were not installed on all cars by the factory ….yeah I know costs……but

Tom Green and Dwight Mitchell were some of the fastest autocrossers in the Bay Area which set a lot of performance standards back in the day …..the golden age of 914s. They settled on no rear bars ……I believe.
Wondering if someone said that about Carroll Shelby.
Relax all …..just sayin (IMG:style_emoticons/default/dry.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/dry.gif)

I worked for Dwight for seven years and tested many of Tom Greens products before they made it to market.
When I went to work for Dwight I had 10 years of Porsche/Audi dealership experience but none of it include Auto-x or time trial setup, just standard alignments and stock parts and very few 914's at dealers then.
Dwight taught me how & why he set up the cars and I set up many 911's, 944's and 914's for auto-x and/or time trial.
Depending on what the customer wanted, we often used heavier rear springs , larger front T-bars and an adjustable front sway bar to balance the car.
Dwight's preference was to use spring rates to control most of the body roll and a sway bars to balance and tune to fit the driver style.
We did not have a standard set-up, every set up was planned for the customer base on the car and what they wanted to do with and what they were or were not willing to compromise.

I am not currently running a rear sway bar on my 914 but have a stock rear bar I plan to try it out sometime.

Jim