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Sway bars


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I while ago i got myself a 22mm front sway bar. I couldn't get the matching rear cause it was for a BE (so it's now on spotme's GTB). It's been gathering dust in the garage since.

I'm just wondering, i've heard numerous times, in the simplest of terms, that you stiffen the rear to reduce understeer. So, a rear bias with sway bars will help reduce understeer for example.

But i'd like to know more about this, and also wonder if sticking the 22m front in, without a matching rear will actually increase understeer or not? The factory GTB sway bars are 19 or 20mm front, and 19mm rear.

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so to answer the question -

when you say a bigger front reduces understeer.. it does but not how you think - it does nothing to change the "front grip" understeer. all its doing is reducing the rear traction to get the arse to move round to point in the direction you want.

The same is true if you do the front bar, it just reduces the front grip .. thus a bit more understeery in theory.

In practice changing both bars to 22mm say will make the car over all more gripy - and "roll" less. Thus a car with 22mm front and rear should handle substaintially better than stock bars but remain the under/over steer properties it had on say matched 19mm bars.

I have 22mm in the front personally, and 22mm adjustie rear set to hardest setting and is described as above - all round miles better - and because ive cranked up the rear it equates to 23-24mm bar i have a bit more netraulity to my set up.

important things to note here

#1 I use a K frame - this alters the front subframe movement or lack of so impacts the under/over steer characteristics ALOT in conjuction with my bars (I FOUND).

#2 often over looked and leads in to the age old discussion about bigger front or rear bars... the type of diff you run...

I personally found that i needed a bigger rear to make the car go nice coz i had an open front and viscous center and rear..

(Those with dccd, and plated rears, viscous fronts mostly find it seems a bigger front is required)... ((im simply stating my findings to date)

#3 other suspension components, my coilovers i found have provided a lot of independant corner rigidity - Its MY feeling there has to be some goodness in maintaining the independant nature of the suspension loadings in dynamic conditions... a sway bar as they get stiffer makes the fronts/rears much more linked left/right suspension..

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 ReubenH said:

But i'd like to know more about this, and also wonder if sticking the 22m front in, without a matching rear will actually increase understeer or not? The factory GTB sway bars are 19 or 20mm front, and 19mm rear.

Factory GTB front bar should be 20mm. Also remember ARBs are not created equal as some are made from better steel than others so are stronger / weaker

If you stick the front ARB in you will increase grip as being thicker than factory it will reduce roll. By reducing roll we have improved the camber curve. This means we we get more tyre on the road which means more grip.

So the speed at which u can go around a corner should increase - a higher limit so to speak

You may find once/if you get to the new "limit" of grip the car understeers more than when it had the 20/19mm ARB factory bars.

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Well I've got the whiteline 22mm adj rear sway bar in the back of my GTB and its set on the medium setting at the moment and the first thing I noticed was that the hidious amound of understeer the legacy got was gone - completely! The steering is ten times more precise when turning, and when you do get thing a bit out of hand all four wheels seems to skip accross the road at the same rate - four wheel slide much? its bloody great fun!

I still havent had a play with the settings as yet to see what changes it makes but I'm not going to bother with doing anything on the front as from what I can tell you just dont need to, the only problem I have found now is that some times on uneven road at lower speeds the back seems to "wallow" around a bit when throwing it about, but I think thats the feeling of the tyres actually gripping the road lol, has anyone else found this too?

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 Hailz said:

Well I've got the whiteline 22mm adj rear sway bar in the back of my GTB and its set on the medium setting at the moment and the first thing I noticed was that the hidious amound of understeer the legacy got was gone - completely!

I still havent had a play with the settings as yet to see what changes it makes but I'm not going to bother with doing anything on the front as from what I can tell you just dont need to, the only problem I have found now is that some times on uneven road at lower speeds the back seems to "wallow" around a bit when throwing it about, but I think thats the feeling of the tyres actually gripping the road lol, has anyone else found this too?

Same set up as mine. And thats what I thought too. but after a while of being used to it (and also owning a RWD) i found the understeer to still be abhorrent. I've now cranked it to the hardest setting and the thing is magic. Stiff as a schoolboy in a brothel tho - I get one rear wheel off the ground just going into my driveway :P

Didnt think i needed to do the front either. Now the bar is on its hardest setting its become plainly obvious that an upgrade of the front is necessary.

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The extra grip you get from larger sway bars (at whichever end) is because they transfer more weight to the outside tyre (unless your roll centre is somehow above your centre of gravity). Tyre grip is a function of weight (vertical loading) and the friction coefficient of the tyre (which is determined by tyre material/ construction/ heat etc). As Qwerty said, you will probably find the car is less progressive or 'forgiving' at the limit because a tyre will respond to more vertical loading only to a point, at which time it will begin to lose its lateral loading capabilities very quickly. Generally speaking you are much better off getting bigger sway bars than increasing your suspension stiffness - the simple reason being that the softer the suspension the better for maintaining grip over uneven surfaces.

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Guest boostin

Well my wagon has bigger bars front and rear. How do you think it handled on SH22 last weekend? It is on tired Monroe shocks though, soon to be STI red inverted KYB's.

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