[Spits] Front swaybar

[Jim Muller]

On 27 Dec 2007 at 17:50, foxtrapper at aceweb.com wrote:

> The second thing is to increase the load on the front tires.

This is not quite correct.  A larger front swaybar increases the load 
on the outside front and inside rear tires, and decreases the tires 
on the opposite diagonal.  Whether this is a good thing depends on a 
bunch of other factors.  With a front engine way up in the air you 
usually already have too much weight on the outside front tire, so 
the result is to reduce front traction.  Similar arguments apply at 
the rear, where the center of mass is much lower.  The roll center is 
also different front to rear, usually much higher at the rear, 
especially with a swing axle.  The result is that you start with even 
more weight already transferred to the OF/IR diagonal.  Yes, having 
the car sit flatter in a corner is good, but the weight shift onto 
the already overburdened diagonal makes understeer worse.


-- 
Jim Muller
jimmuller at rcn.com
'80 Spitfire, '70 GT6+