Yup. In a circle track car the sway bar IS a spring, but you get a lot of
useful weight transfer from it. Your total spring rate (tires plus springs
plus dynamic transfer from the sway bar) determines a lot of the handling
characteristics. Heavy springs and heavy bar might be just right in a
straight line where the sway bar contributes nothing and way too much in the
corner. You can't do this kind of thing in a car that turns left and right,
but very light springs and very heavy sway bar has been a tuner secret for
roundy-rounds for some time.
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-fot@autox.team.net [mailto:owner-fot@autox.team.net] On Behalf
Of BillDentin@aol.com
Sent: Saturday, March 19, 2005 6:51 AM
To: vinttr4@geneseo.net; fot@autox.team.net
Subject: Re: sway bar
Amici:
Most of this suspension and sway bar stuff is well past my ability to
comprehend, but I've passed it along to my mechanic, Kevin Potter, who
prefers reading it to the DaVinci Code. Kevin is a NASCAR nut, and only
pretends to be a vintage sports car mechanic to please me. He notes that
the current trend in circle track racing is for much lighter springs and
much heavier sway bars. He says he can guess what they are trying to do,
but lacks the background to support a theory.
Any comments?
Bill (Damdinger)
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