New ERP/Mirage Cockpit adjustable sway bars.

[ted]

Today I took some photos of a very cool sway bar set up.
Here are a couple sneak photos of the new ERP/Mirage cockpit adjustable blade sway bar.
You can contact Jae Lee at Mirage International in San Diego Ca. at 1 858 581 1101 for details.
The sway bar below is being installed on the Mirage 911 RSR+ project.

What advantage will the Porsche driver have with cockpit adjustable sway bars?
There are few good reasons to have cockpit adjustable sway bars.

If it began to rain in the middle of a DE session or race (or on wet roads coming home from the track with your R rated tires ) sway bar adjustments could be made on the fly restoring max grip and car control to you immediately. Simply stiffen the front and soften the rear to tame your Porsche in poor traction conditions.

My application would routinely be in the first half hour session at the track I’d try several sway bar adjustments and see lap time results immediately. Sway bars optimally adjusted in just one session.

During an event if I change tires in the pits I won’t have to make a sway bar guess before the next session. Just go out on the track and make cockpit adjustments based on how the car handles instead of from the pits based on how you guessed it might handle.

I’ll be more inclined to try new sway bar setting since I’ll no longer have to lie down on the ground underneath the Porsche to do so.

Might be other advantages to cockpit adjustable sway bars too?

Click here to see the thread on the entire Mirage 911 RSR+ project.
New RSR+ updates and pictures to be posted soon.

Best Regards.
Mike

Blade bar style, remote adjuster and drop link not shown.


Rear bar, front and rear bars share same OD size (not wall thickness) so they are interchangable.

[widebody911]

Sweet! I like it. Co$t? Pix of the setup installed?

[smdubovsky]

Very cool, but 2 questions. If the ends are welded to the bar, how do you insert the front one through the body? My only guess would be larger holes and an even larger bearing plate to cover the hole (or some sort of 2pc splined shaft). Also, the old 935s used these and one of the Ludvigson(sp?) or Frere books mentions that most drivers said they didn't really work at any setting except full soft of stiff. How are these going to be any different?

Tnx!
SMD

[Cory M]

What are the effective spring rate ranges for the bars? This is pretty critical since the bars are part of the assembly and can't be easily swapped out for other sizes.

[KobaltBlau]

I want to see the adjuster mechanism

[smdubovsky]

Looks like it will use a similar adjuster to what the dirt track guys use (which is nothing much more than a ratchet w/ a couple of pull cables).

SMD

[ted]

Hi Guys those are some great comments and questions. This is my first blade bar and with my car still a few weeks from ready it will be a while before I get to try it at the track. I'll give you a full report then. Until then please direct your questions directly to ERP or Mirage.
Good luck racing,
Mike

[911pcars]

Here's a similar setup on a TransAm car., but I saw only one cable.



Sherwood

[ted]

Originally posted by 911pcars
Here's a similar setup on a TransAm car., but I saw only one cable.
Sherwood

Hi Sherwood,
This might be common knowledge but it’s new to me.

Although both blades are adjustable, unlike a common sway bar only one blade need be moved for a fine adjustment.
I expect the setting on the non cable controlled blade would determine the effectiveness of the cable controlled blade.

For example...
If it was going to rain you might want the cable blade pre-set on the stops so in the rain you could get max change to the set up.

In the dry you might want the car dialed in and the cable blades in the middle of the cable travel providing instead equal hard and soft sway bar adjustments.

Regardless of the desired set up, synchronizing the front and rear cablle contolled blades for similar effect.


Of note, as the blade goes through its entire arc of travel the changes are not linear. For example in your picture the blade appears half way through it's arc. I expect though in that postion the bar may be actually some percentage more stiff than soft.

Thanks for the photo. I asked Trans Am Racer Mike Davis about his cable contolled sway bars and he mentioned he used his frequently in the wet sessions or rain races.

[911pcars]

"Although both blades are adjustable, unlike a common sway bar only one blade need be moved for a fine adjustment.

I expect the setting on the non cable controlled blade would determine the effectiveness of the cable controlled blade.
"

Mike,
I agree. It appears the non-adjustable end is preset during practice, then the adjustable blade fine tunes the setting. The combination of both blade arms (and sway bar dia.) determine the overall roll stiffness.

Here's a view of the front end of Gentilozzi's TransAm Jag - single cable.



Sherwood

[BReyes]

Very trick! Who else runs these?

[911pcars]

Originally posted by BReyes
Very trick! Who else runs these?

Every TransAm team I've seen runs cockpit-adjustable sway bars. I suspect they allow these on any amateur or pro series that doesn't prohibit them.

Here's one. Honda Element (I think); rear. A little overkill, wouldn't you think? But good for the underchassis bling.



Sherwood

[DW SD]

Mike,
AWESOME! Can't wait to see the beast up-close.

Doug

[MotoSook]

Cool to see it on a 911...

One of our suppliers has a set up like that, for the non-Porsche cars and I've been working on adapting it to my car.

[bigbrotherjohn]

I know this thread is long dead, but I have a quick question on the linkage used to turn the i-beam arm. Since there is only one cable is the linkage only adjustable one way or is the cable designed so that is can push and pull on the little lever on the linkage. I just wanted to know how this works because it looks like I will be designing one in the future for our school's Formula car. Is the cable stiff enough so that it can be used to adjust the bar in both dircetions?

[Cookie Porsche]

I have just pulled this thread back from the dead...

Googled the ERP/Mirage sway bar with no luck and checked the Mirage site.

What's the story - is it available and anyone tried it???

T

[911pcars]

Originally Posted by bigbrotherjohn

I know this thread is long dead, but I have a quick question on the linkage used to turn the i-beam arm. Since there is only one cable is the linkage only adjustable one way or is the cable designed so that is can push and pull on the little lever on the linkage. I just wanted to know how this works because it looks like I will be designing one in the future for our school's Formula car. Is the cable stiff enough so that it can be used to adjust the bar in both dircetions?

The effective range of a bladed sway bar arm is 90º. It provides the most torsional stiffness in the vertical position (12 o'clock) as seen in the above photos, and least stiff when the arm rotates 90º from vertical to 9 or 3 o'clock.

In F1 racing where a couple of millimeters of suspension adjustment is huge, the cockpit camera sometimes catches drivers changing the roll stiffness with their cockpit controls at specific corners to maximize entry/exit speeds. There's a difference of opinion on driver-selectable roll stiffness in lesser forms of racing. Some remove the driver temptation to fiddle by installing the adjustment lever out of reach. I saw one pro Porsche Cup car with the front/rear SB adjusters in the trunk.

Sherwood


Sherwood