Front sway bar.

[tmk]

I have 21mm torsion bars and a stock (19mm?) sway bar. How much will a 22mm sway bar help in keeping the inside rear wheel from unloading over a stock bar when auto-crossing? Is is worth the $?

TMK
73 914S 2.1L

[Joe Bob]

The problem with the stock sway bar is that it is not adjustable. The Weltmeister unit sold by Automotion and others has adjustable drop links and sliders.

This will allow you to set different degrees of over/understeer and will still function correctly when the car is lowered. A big plus on some tracks, if you do not autocross it probably is not a big deal....but in a big sweeper, doing 90+ I would rather be able to dial in a little understeer as opposed to having the ass end try to come around on me at that speed.

Plus the stockers have 25 year old bushings...I have seen people re-do the stockers and make them adjustable, but the effort is time consuming....just my $.02, buy a new Weltmeister, use the 21mm and upgrade the torsion bars.

[Dave at Pelican Parts]

The stock bar is 15mm or 16mm. (I forget which.) The sway bar is essentially a torsion bar. Torsion bar stiffness increases with the CUBE of the diameter. So a 19mm bar is TWICE as stiff as a 16mm one.

The equation changes with the length of the lever arm used on the torsion bar. So the adjustment on the Weltmeister bars makes things somewhat more complicated...

What is the balance of the car right now? Does it understeer most of the time? Does it oversteer most of the time? Is it pretty neutral?

Installing a larger front sway bar will make it oversteer less/understeer more. So if your car currently understeers most of the time, a larger front bar will make it worse. If your car is neutral, a larger front bar will make it understeer. If your car is oversteering, the larger front bar will make it more neutral.

If your *only* problem is wheelspin while exiting the corners, the two best suggestions I have are 1--limited slip differential; 2--change your driving style. Of the two, the second is by FAR the cheaper alternative. Simply be a lot more careful and a lot smoother about applying the power when coming out of a corner.

--DD

[neilca]

What is the size of the stock torsion bars? I just removed some 18mm from my front end are these stock, they were painted white(R) and orange(L).
Thanks,
neil

[tmk]

Thanks to all. The car for the most part is neutral. On big tracks it has a little understeer but very controllable. I only see this what auto crossing. I just installed a new hex cross bar linkage and cable and I now have a much smoother and more controllable throttle. I well see how it goes next weekend in Dublin.

TMK
73 914S 2.1L