I haven't put my rear sway bar back on yet because I cant find the damn brackets for them. LOL are they really needed? will it hurt anything if it isn't on?

 

it is all personal preference and where the car needs attention and what you're driving habits are. a rear sway bar is good for drifting but not necessary for daily driving or even most spirited driving as long as the alignment is set up well that is what really matters.

 

ok kool but I should put it back on anyway I guess

 

most people at autocrosses totally disconnect their rear sway bar, for regular driving on the road though i would have it hooked up.

 

really? fc's plow pretty badly at low speeds I found, I found myself wanting MORE rear bar if anything, not less!

 

I thougt you said its good for drifting? Why would they remove the sway bar?

 

most of the problem with the stock suspension is it doesn't grip with the stock configuration: new bushings, stiffer springs and struts and better tires help with understeer quite a bit but the rear is not so much the problem but the DTSS doesn't help the matter. a stiffer sway bar will keep the tires more even on the pavement which is good for less body roll but not always for traction. for more rear traction you want the rear end to breathe and have the front end be a bit more level with the pavement it is in contact with and add some negative camber and up the tire pressure a a tiny bit from recommended spec and you should have no understeer issues with the front end unless you are going into a turn way too fast.


for drifting you use extremely stiff rear springs and sway bar and up the tire pressures as much as safely allowable.

 

there needs to be a question of what the rest of your car is like as well. if you run coilovers with a good spring rate i think the rears ate truly optional. but I would leave it if your suspentions stock.

 

I have energy suspension bushings, tokico blue shocks, intrax springs, DTSS bushings, delrin subframe mounts and a torsen LSD. Thats the setup for the rear. The front I have yet to touch. It has a T2 driveline from the flywheel back.

 

The amount of bar you need is dependant on the springrates you use - some swear by just having stiff springs and no rollbars. IIRC the Ultima GTR is made that way.

the good things about them is you can easily tune in or out how much you use if more than one hole is put in the bar to mount it up to the rest of the suspension, or you can just remove it - on-track tuning can be done that way. Anecdotally speaking Ive heard many cars that do good in the dry with anti roll bars will remove the rear or both for rain.

 

Yep, I've got KYB AGX's with GC coilovers and Eibach springs, and I don't have a rear sway bar. I have found that my car is almost neutral in corners unless I really over do it then it has slight understeer which was fixed by letting off the throttle. It was easy to pop out the rear with the throttle and very easy to control in the wet. My car also had some major rear camber that could have helped as well, though.

 

yea I think I understand. I just always thought that sway bars just help keep theh rear end together and stiffer to stop the sway. But it you have a stiff set up(as oppose to a limp setup...hehe). Then sway bars wont matter because the sway isn't there anyway.

 

Thats kinda of funning what your saying karack
B/C my rear sway bar came loose and the dam 2 inch conector got lost, but every time i go to take a turn at full throttle i can break the rear traction with ease even in 2nd and 3rd, which would be the start of a drift.... then again my tires a balder then Stone Cold Steve Austins' head!

 

its really a personal choice, in accordance with how your setting up the car. i just got my RB front swaybar for xmas, and after i put it on, im going to hit up the track and do some sessions with the rear one on, and some with it off. then based on lap times and car feedback, etc. ill decide whats right for me. i have a feeling im going to be taking the damn thing off, since im setting up the car for grip, not drift. but we shall see!

 

Remember, more roll bar on one axle puts more traction to the other axle - and if you have stiff ones on both axles the car will pick up the inside wheel.

It can be a good or a bad thing, depending on what tires youre running, the rest of the tuning, etc.

 

exactly. it depends alot on what other kind of suspension work has been done to the car, tire pressure and size, etc...its the kind of thing that needs testing

 

so in any case it won't hurt anything if the sway bar was off right?

 

I had JIC coilovers with Eibach sway bars, then removed the rear Eibach sway bar, and have now removed the rear sway bar. It seems that with my setup, the car would oversteer and get sideways quickly at the track. The stock sway bar seemed to increase grip over the Eibach and running no rear swat bar seems to be best for my setup. I have not tested it at the track yet but, I can now take on ramps 10+ mph faster.