I'm starting to put together my winter project of suspension work. I have my Koni adjustable spring perches & springs and Weltmeister front adjustable sway bar coming soon from Rich (a914guy) and I am now looking at torsion bars.

PP has both the solid & hollow 21mm torsion bars at $240 (solid) & $291 (hollow). I have come to the conclusion that I want AX car that I can drive on the street so with that in mind is extra $$ for hollow torsion bars worth the money? What is the advantage of hollow over solid?

Thanks

the advantage over solid is that they weigh less

QUOTE

What is the advantage of hollow over solid?

they're a little bit lighter.
they're pretty low, where a little additional weight is not a huge deal.

i bought them for my 911, in part because rear torsions are pretty big and heavy and i wanted a matched set. in part, because i wanted the "ultimate" suspension i wouldn't be tempted to second-guess and "upgrade" again later.

"worth it" for a car with rubber in the suspension? probably not.

(i have no rubber in the 911 suspension.)

YMMV.

one additional minor factor - typically, the only people making the hollow bars are the good makers - e.g. Sander or Charlie - so you may be getting a bar with a better alloy of steel, better heat-treated, and with better, more accurately machined splines.

might.

sway away also make hollow bars rich....

QUOTE (Aaron Cox @ Sep 19 2005, 12:55 PM)

sway away also make hollow bars rich....

QUOTE

e.g. Sander or Charlie

e.g. -- "for example."
i have some Sway-A-Way parts - i think my adjustable spring plates are S-A-W.
they have a good reputation in axles and i'd see no reason they couldn't also make good torsion bars - they've been doing it for the SCORE crowd for 40 years.

or is your meaning that you consider the Sway-A-Way parts to be inferior; it could be taken either way...

just throwing it out there that they also make hollows.....

I would get solid. I think the weight savings must be pretty small. Divide the weight loss by the extra $$$ and you'll probably come to the conclusion that the money could better be used elsewhere on the car.

Yep, that's what I thought too. Just wanted make sure there wasn't some sort of magic powers from using hollow torsion bars