Big Sway Bars for late model S197s

[OX1]

Rear bars on a front engine RWD stick-axle car built for cornering are really there for final tuning of the handling balance. A big rear bar is not the place to look for reducing roll.


Norm

I really need to get down there and get a ride in your Stang and see how a rig that is capable of pulling 1.2G's (swear I saw upwards of that in some of your vids), rides on the street. What street tires do you run BTW?

 

[Norm Peterson]

I would say $1000 worth of rear sway bar. The only issue for me, are the Boss 25mm or LS 26mm sway bars dangerous on a Base GT.

By themselves? Impossible to say without knowing a lot more about the car's setup.

Could a big rear bar be dangerous? Probably. If, say, you'd disconnected the front bar for a drag race, forgot to reconnect it for the drive home, and ran into either an emergency swerve situation or a curve that suddenly got sharper.


Norm

 

[Norm Peterson]

Never heard of "bigger tire needs bigger

It can . . . if the new bigger rear tires land you with too much understeer, a bigger rear bar can be used to dial some of the understeer back out.

Though that situation would probably be better handled using front and rear bars both adjustable for stiffness than jumping from one fixed-rate rear bar to a different fixed-rate rear bar.


Norm

 

[Norm Peterson]

I really need to get down there and get a ride in your Stang and see how a rig that is capable of pulling 1.2G's (swear I saw upwards of that in some of your vids), rides on the street. What street tires do you run BTW?

I've got datalogged peak g's in the 1.3's. MPSS tires in 285/35-18 on 18x11 wheels all around.

I've got some axle work to do before it gets driven again, and let's just say that winters in general (and today's conditions in particular) are not conducive to doing major work on cars when the great outdoors is all you have. But I can tell you that my wife doesn't mind riding in it provided I dial the Konis back from my own street preference if we're going very far (settings that are themselves dialed back from the track settings).


Norm

 

[Norm Peterson]

MPSS tires in 285/35-18 on 18x11 wheels all around.

That's actually the "track set", though they do see a significant amount of street use. What's nominally the street set is 265/40-18 MPSS on 18x9.5 wheels (they'd work a bit better on 18x10, but I already had the 9.5's from a previous setup).

We're both "70-something".


Norm

 

[Pentalab]

I think the Roush front sway bar for the 05-14 cars is 37mm. I think the rear Roush sway bar is aprx 24-26 mm. Both are non adjustable. I have the exact diameters buried in my notes somewhere. I forget what the oem sizes are for the front / rear sway bars. I do remember at the time, the roush front sway bar was a helluva lot bigger diam than oem. I will see what I can dig up.

 

[LarryJM]

I think the Roush front sway bar for the 05-14 cars is 37mm. I think the rear Roush sway bar is aprx 24-26 mm. Both are non adjustable. I have the exact diameters buried in my notes somewhere. I forget what the oem sizes are for the front / rear sway bars. I do remember at the time, the roush front sway bar was a helluva lot bigger diam than oem. I will see what I can dig up.

GT front 34.6mm and rear 24mm GT500 and Boss 34.6 front and 25mm rear. That is what I am going with at this time. I already have the 09 front/14 rear GT500 brakes. Well that is how I ordered them from Rockauto.

 

[07 Boss]

By themselves? Impossible to say without knowing a lot more about the car's setup.

Could a big rear bar be dangerous? Probably. If, say, you'd disconnected the front bar for a drag race, forgot to reconnect it for the drive home, and ran into either an emergency swerve situation or a curve that suddenly got sharper.


Norm

Haha, I run no front bar and run the BMR Extreme at its softest setting and I can attest to the snap oversteer during evasive maneuvers. It can be quite a handful at times.

 

[Pentalab]

Both BMR and also Steeda make an 'ARB' (anti roll bar), which looks like a rear sway bar...on steroids. And both of em say not to use it on the street, strip only.