Sway bars

[Mike Hausner]

I'm trying to decide whether or not I should keep my sway bars. The front is from CR, the rear is a Mustang GT piece. Now I seem to remember someone (DV?) saying that the bars are not needed on a CR. Anyone add them after driving the car without them?? Is it worth it to leave them on? I'm asking because: 1. The car goes to CBE in less than 2 weeks for body mounting & paint and it's easier to remove these parts before the body goes on.....and #2. I really don't like the look of the sway bar in front of the radiator. So....should I leave them on or take 'em off. BTW the car might see an autoX or two and of course I'll have to take it to the drags just to see what it'll do..........MH

[Excaliber]

Hmmmm....that is a controversial question! I've heard it argued both ways from a number of "great" people.

I've boiled it down to this: Virtually all top shelf race cars have them. The really good cars (like JBL) have them cockpit adjustable as well (I'm SO jealous)!

It IS possible to disconnect them or set them up in such a way as to produce no effect or more effect. My car is very "neutral" in handling. I have a front (CR style) sway bar and the standard Ford sway bar in the rear. The car has no tendancy to "push" or "get loose" in the corners UNLESS I "throttle" over steer and kick the back end out. I VERY carefully adjusted the front sway bar to make sure it was not "loaded" favoring one side or the other.

I HAVE thought about disconnecting it (while still leaving it on the car) and trying that. My gutt tells me, "Leave it alone, it's dialed in and seems to be working fine."

As for "looks", can't help you there, it's a personal thing. Mine is painted black and you can't really see it against my black radiator anyway.

Ernie

[rdorman]

In general, if the car can control roll enough with out them, then the springs are to stiff.
Rick

[Double Venom]

Yes..,.it was me (CBE) that said on our DV cars we found through professinal testing that the CR's car did a much better "skid pad test (100') without the "front" bar than it did with it. Right to the point of pulling a 1.3 G with Cooper Cobra street tires, which of course fried my beautifull Viper engine!

Ohh, the cost of edukation! Just for facts, the Viper engine is a little heavier than a 351 and a lot less than a 460!

Do as Ernie says, just unbolt it from the link, leaving the bar attached, give it a whirl. Like it? Remove it.

DV...ahh I love the " to each their own" on these cars.

[cobra427mnsi]

I removed the front sway bar because I didn't like the look of it after I lined the front nose with aluminium. I have not noticed any difference in handling. I do not race the car so I cannot comment on its removal for road racing. I can still take road turns at a pretty good clip and I don't notice any swaying or diving into the turn as you might expect with the sway bar removed.
My radiator is the aluminium Griffin and the nose cone liner is brushed aluminium so the black sway bar was fairly obvious from about three miles away.
If you are going to remove it, do it before the body goes on, I had to hack saw mine in half to get it out.

Paul

[petek]

I was able to remove my front sway bar without resorting to cutting it in half. Then I re-installed the swaybar ... upside down. Removed it again, re-installed right side up.

Been running with the bar, seems ok but I haven't done any real testing (only 2600 miles on the engine).