Stiff Front Sway Bar Thoughts

Originally Posted by MaysEffect

The Z is not the only exception. Almost every car with a greater front weight bias has a larger front bar. The wrong information has been spread over the past decade that the rear bar should be enlarged for a plethora of wrong reasons. In reality the only reason the bars should be increased is if you have a significant increase in torque or increase in weight and or spring rate.

Most cars understeer from either having too much weight on the nose, or not enough at speed, this is why a 50/50 weight balance is ideal or slightly rearward (48f/52r). Under braking and lateral forces, weight shifts forward and outward increasing load on the front tires. Too much load and you overload the tires and lose traction, too little and the tires won't grip. This balancing act is the most critical aspect of design.

The Z has more weight on the front axle, no where near the levels of a Subaru or VW. But combined with smaller tires, you get a loss of traction from tire overload. There isn't anything funky about the suspension design or alignment that would cause additional understeer.

Increasing sway bar size is rather compromising unless you're increasing the spring rate or the amount of lateral load (increased g forces from bigger, stickier tires). Adding a larger bar with the same factory tires will just increase the load on the outter tire and reduce the contact patch on the inner tire. This is no bueno, thus the plethora of complaints of understeer.

Adding a larger front bar will reduce roll as intended with increased lateral load or additional weight (downforce). Increasing the rear bar causes a cross weighting effect that will transfer additional load to the inner front wheel, sharpening steering response and tire grip. The downside being increased instability and increased load on the outter rear tire. The trade offs are vast if you aren't actually increasing tire grip and load capacity.

Originally Posted by filip00

If you have a Z with a staggered setup, everything stock, car will be prone to understeer, that's how it's setup.

Originally Posted by geeteezee

I was under the impression that our cars were more prone to oversteer.

Originally Posted by geeteezee

I was under the impression that our cars were more prone to oversteer.

Originally Posted by AH370Z

I fitted a front whiteline sway bar with 2 settings, swift springs oem shocks oem 19" tyre sizes and Michelin Piot 4S tyres.

I asked whiteline how much stiffer over oem and soft is approx 30% and hard is 65% I tried the hard setting and the car just wanted to understeer too much. Simple test was perform quick U turn, hit the gas trying to spin the car around and it just understeered.

I simply cannot understand how some run the much stiffer bars up front 100-130% stiffer whatever it is. Just tells me majority simply do not drive the cars hard enough (which is fine) so all they are feeling is the stiffer setup and less roll, but if actually drove the car agressivly they would end up pushing.

Originally Posted by Rusty

The stiff front sway bar was tested by Doren Racing. When they ran a 370RC in the Pirelli Cup. Their race driver was a member on here. Dwnshift, pro driver. And others have proven that it works. I, for one. I'm a Class C driver.

Originally Posted by gomer_110

I always love when this topic comes up from an entertainment standpoint although this time, I'll just sit back and not feed the trolls.

Originally Posted by gomer_110

The 370's need the stiffest front sway bar you can find to improve the handling. The Hotchkis is just a stiffer bar than the Eibach.

There is no sway bar offered for our car that will make the ride quality so bad you wouldn't drive it on the street. The only reason mine doesn't see more street driving is the custom front splitter that would get damaged by many of the roads in my area.