Torsion Bars

[myslateblue911]

What are the stock size torsion bars on my 83' SC?

What is the purpose for going with a larger torsion bar. Is this typically a strategy for tracking the car? Or is this useful also for some occasional spirited driving on the street. It is a substantial investment and I am wondering if it is worth it for a street car.

[Bill Verburg]

Originally Posted by myslateblue911

What are the stock size torsion bars on my 83' SC?

What is the purpose for going with a larger torsion bar. Is this typically a strategy for tracking the car? Or is this useful also for some occasional spirited driving on the street. It is a substantial investment and I am wondering if it is worth it for a street car.

18.8/24.1mm

Many find the stock t-bars to allow too much body roll during cornering, this leads to steering abnormalities and general discomfort.

Stiffer t-bars properly paired reduce body roll and can also be used to either increase or decrease steering characteristics to better suit the drivers preferences.

Sway bars, wheel and tire choices also do this but it's generally better to get the car where you want it w/ t-bars, wheels and tires then tweek w/ sways

[KyMitch]

I've got the usual, what seems to be the most common sport/street setup. 22mm front/28mm rear rorsion bars, bilstein sport shocks, all new bushings. Later 3.2 carrera sway bars, they're a bit larger from 86-89.. Few other goodies and I love it! There's plenty of good suspension write ups to dig into on here. It's a fun winter project!

[Driven97]

Torsion bars are the springs on our cars. Actually a coil spring is a torsion bar too, just bent into a funny shape.

The factory bars are super duper soft by modern standards. Heck, Cadillacs and Lexuses aren't sprung that soft anymore. But note that chassis have gotten significantly stiffer since our tubs were drawn up in the 60s, which is part of why you can have a stiffer suspension without losing too much ride quality.

A larger torsion bar will let the suspension compress less for an equivalent force. So, in turns the car will lean less. The car will squat less on acceleration, and dive less on the brakes. It will react quicker to inputs. Basically, the car will be more sporty feeling.

That said, if you're happy with your car and the way it drives, I'd think real hard about messing with it. Nearly every "upgrade" is a tradeoff. With stiffer torsion bars also comes a stiffer ride. Also note that a 1mm change in a bar does NOT equal the same thing - stiffness rises with the quartic of diameter. So the above suggestion of 22/28 would make the front end of the car about 200% as stiff and the rear end 185% as stiff as stock. That's a really, really big difference.

[Bill Verburg]

Originally Posted by Driven97

T...
That said, if you're happy with your car and the way it drives, I'd think real hard about messing with it. Nearly every "upgrade" is a tradeoff. With stiffer torsion bars also comes a stiffer ride. Also note that a 1mm change in a bar does NOT equal the same thing - stiffness rises with the quartic of diameter. So the above suggestion of 22/28 would make the front end of the car about 200% as stiff and the rear end 185% as stiff as stock. That's a really, really big difference.

I agree, I've driven track cars w/ 21/27 and even that was on the edge of what I'd want for street use. The local road conditions may also influence you decision, race tracks are generally very smooth you can use even bigger t's there and , local roads not so much.

[myslateblue911]

Thanks to all who replied.

Elephant racing has numerous options available for torsion bars upgrade under the "suspension builder" feature of there website ranging from 21 front 28 rear (sport restoration 1) all the way to
22 front 29 rear (sport restoration 2). They also have street performance 1 & 2 not using rubber bushings....Anyway

I think that Elephant racing's torsion bars are "plated & plugged" Hollow torsion bars.

For my suspension refresh, I am thinking about going with:

Torsion bars
Sway bars
Bilstein shocks (rear inserts) - Presently have Bilsteins in front and Boge's in rear
stabilizer bar

It seems that Elephant racing products are the consensus go to product for high quality parts. Are there any other options for my need other than Elephant Racing that are similar in quality at a fraction of the price?

[Driven97]

The nice thing about Elephant is you just give them a call and they send you a package that works. Piecing your own stuff together is fine, but you're playing "race and ride engineer" on your own.

Elephant also sells Sway-A-Way brand torsion bars which work just fine and are a bit cheaper than the plated and gun drilled Sanders stuff. I've run both and they both fit, and you'd never know the difference from the driver's seat.

You may want to consider doing things step wise. Maybe try just fresh shocks first as they're a pretty simple swap on these cars and in the realm of general maintenance. Those alone may give you the improvement you're looking for.

If that doesn't do it, maybe add the rear swaybar next. Again, simple 1-beer parts swap and a definite tangible change in how the car acts.

Torsion bar change isn't difficult, but requires a decent amount of wrenching, plus at least an alignment after and for best results a corner balance too. Plus there's a very real chance of catching the "while I'm in there" disease doing that job. That's an expensive disease.

[Elombard]

Elephants web site makes it relatively easy to figure out an upgrade path. As suggested above dive in there are tons of threads about this here on pelican.

Most of the parts you mentioned are also available here on Pelican (I think the entire elephant catalog?). There are several other vendors, Rebel Racing (RSR), Tarrett, TRE, Patrick Racing and more.

[Bill Verburg]

Originally Posted by myslateblue911

Thanks to all who replied.

Elephant racing has numerous options available for torsion bars upgrade under the "suspension builder" feature of there website ranging from 21 front 28 rear (sport restoration 1) all the way to
22 front 29 rear (sport restoration 2). They also have street performance 1 & 2 not using rubber bushings....Anyway

I think that Elephant racing's torsion bars are "plated & plugged" Hollow torsion bars.

For my suspension refresh, I am thinking about going with:

Torsion bars
Sway bars
Bilstein shocks (rear inserts) - Presently have Bilsteins in front and Boge's in rear
stabilizer bar

It seems that Elephant racing products are the consensus go to product for high quality parts. Are there any other options for my need other than Elephant Racing that are similar in quality at a fraction of the price?

Only the front shocks have separate inserts

Elephant is a great resource

I'd think about having the shocks(f&r) redone w/ a digressive revalve suited to the application