wells122

is this just for track use only are can it be used on the street, also is it worth it

Argonaut

When you say "Anti Roll Bar Kit" I'm assuming you are talking about purchasing an aftermarket kit that contains both a Front and Rear sway bar.

An S197 GT has factory sway bars front and rear. The V6 has one front only. On the GT, for most drivers, the stock are fine. On the V6 many guys add a rear sway.

Is it for track only? - Not necessarily

Is it worth it? - see above.

Sway bars are but one piece of the complex suspension equation. If you are interested in suspension upgrades this would be nearer the bottom than the top - for the GT anyway.

wells122

this is a kit from bmr that replaces the rear sway bar

Norm Peterson

(1) What do you want it to do for you? If you want it for drag racing reasons you'll want a much stiffer bar than if you want it for handling/cornering reasons.

(2) As for handling, what size bar do you have there now? Is the BMR piece a different diameter? How much different? Does it attach in the same way? Perhaps more importantly, is the BMR bar heat-treated (not all aftermarket bars are)?


Norm

Argonaut

Norm - maybe you can help me out here. I don't understand how a rear sway affects drag racing (longitudinal force). I thought sway bars were only in use during during cornering (lattitudinal force). Is it because of the twisting of the rear axle due to the torque? Thanks.

RodeoFlyer

It's to make the *** squat square and not favor either side.

Norm Peterson

It uses the chassis reaction (twist) to engine torque to "re-plant" the RR tire (making its grip a closer match tothat of the LR). You don't get 100% compensation of the pinion gear trying to climb up the ring gear, which is what make the RR go "light" in the first place, but you do get lots more help than you do with what's OE. There is a downside - a car so equipped can be "loose" handling in hard cornering or on slick pavement.


Norm

Argonaut

I get it, thanks for the responses. Is it safe to saya very stiff rear sway would be best for Drag applications but come at the probable expense of a car prone to oversteer. A slightly stiffer rear sway would be a good compromise - better than OE for Drag. Better than OE for handling - to balance the overly stiff OE front sway.

RodeoFlyer

And that there is the difference betweena Cook's response and a Chef's lol

Norm Peterson

Yes. But it won't be a "pass-fail" sort of thing where things change suddenly at some point with 0.1 mm more rear bar- more like a continuous spectrum where gradually increasing rear stiffness steadily "loosens" the handling (starting from whatever amount of "push" came as OE).

That would be one approach. Or perhaps part of one as far as optimizing for the dragstrip is concerned. Disconnecting one of the front bar's endlinks also has the effect of shifting more of the roll resistance rearward (at the expense of more roll due to torque reaction and with more than likely even "looser" handling should you leave it disconnected for the trip home). The common perception is that this mod allows the nose to rise more easily, since what you mostly see from the driver's seat is the LF rising in lift plus roll. And drag racers typically don't think in terms of roll couple distribution anyway. But what's really happening is that more of the chassis torque reaction is going back to the RR. In engineering terms, load distributes in proportion to the available stiffnesses.


Norm
(just another sous-chef wanna-be in all this ).