Heard something interesting at yesterday's Vara race
 

I was speaking with Chad (no, I wasn't talin' to myself, it was Chad Plavan ;) ) and he said that he's able to get faster times there without a rear sway bar!

Huh? have I missed something? My car didn't have one stock (I had my mechanic weld the mounts on and I installed an 18mm bar). But, a race car with no sway bar? Anybody else running like this?

It's hard to make any blanket statements about suspension tuning. I remember Cary Eisenlohr (the ERP guy) telling me about running 1:22's at Willow Springs in a race car with a stock 3.6 and slicks. His secret with that particular car/tire combo was to disconnect the front swaybar.

Sounds like you would have a lot of body roll at high G-force cornering, but what do I know. There must be some simple explanation, (involving physics), I would love to hear it. :)

Every car, suspension and track setup will be different. You need to know all of the pertinent facts.

Yea, I still have some push, so I've been thinking about stiffining up the rear (same as softening up the front). That's why I thought it was really strange to go with a soft rear. But, I guess we're talking apples and oranges since it's a narrow body race car with slicks and I have street tires with much larger rear tires than front.

Still interesting, though.

Like Bill said, it's better to know what the particular circumstances are. For example, 30mm rear torsion bars in a really light track car could minimize the need for any sway bar.

Sherwood

That's a good point. Didn't think about the T-bar size. I'll have to hit him to see what he's runnin'.

I'd tweek that by saying....

Every Driver,car, suspension and track setup will be different.

There are no "Perfect Set-up's", only ideal compromises. Some folks like a car that's points in quickly and stablely understeers slightly on exit. Others like it the other way around. Some like a car that's always loose, there are even some who like cars that have a slight persistant understeer. You can stiffen one end of the car with springs or sway bars. Both will increase the weight transfer at that end, but they will both do it differently and have different side effects. These side effects may then neccesitate further adjustments elsewhere.

This is why I always maintain that it's not the solution that matters (X T-Bars, W Sway bars and Z- shocks), but the journey of identifying the particular issue(s) that are impeding your progress and resolving those issues that matters.

well put, john.