Front Swaybar Removal

[Scoobum]

Kevin posted this on the other board, so I thot it was worth posting here as well. Strictly from a drag car standpoint...n o street driving...is there an advantage in removing the front swaybar to lowering your 60 foot time. When bracket racing my car there is little spool time...so I generally go 1.68 to 1.70. 90/10's up front and QA1 single adjustables out back with an ATR rear swaybar and Metco LCA's and stock uppers. A couple more seconds spooling and I can get the car into the 1.5's easily enuf. Would dropping the front swaybar lower my 60 for bracket racing when spool time is short.

I wanna hear the physics involved in regards to the front swaybar in place...and removed for drag racing purposes.

[Steve Wood]

The correct answer is, "it depends".

In your case, I suspect it will not help.

If you stand behind the car and watching it leave under launch conditions, the front of the car will lift and rotate clockwise so that the drivers front fender is higher than the passenger side...this is due to the engine being fastened to the front cross member and has the crank rotates counter clockwise as viewed from the REAR, the block tries to rotate clockwise which lifts the drivers side of the car up front.

On the rear, the driveshaft is rotating counterclockwi se as viewed from the rear and this tends to suck the passenger rear tire up into the wheel housing.  That's the reason we get more tire spin from the passenger rear-it's being unloaded by the counterwise axle housing rotation.  Air bag, stiffer spring, axle stop, or upper rear bar adjustment all can counter this.

On stronger cars, sway bars on both ends may help keep the body more flat so there is less roll rotation allowing the pitch rotation of the body to be more equally applied to rear tires so that the car wants to run straighter from launch and through out the run.  Car is easier to drive.

It should be obvious that engine torque, spring rates, sway bar rates, tire stickiness, alignment, rear control arm adjustment, itre size, and probably a number of other things affect the equation so it's not a simple, run a front bar, or don't.  My GN actually felt like it handled better without a front bar when cornering, but, it had shorter, stiffer springs, bigger tires, bigger bar in the rear, and adjustable arms.

Guys are running in the nines on basically stock suspensions with good short times.  I think I would probably go to something like the Wolfe rear bar that is welded in which takes a bit more work to install and skip the H&R style if I was trying to be serious about it.

[Scoobum]

Steve...thanks for the lesson. I'll leave it on. The car goes down the track like it's on a string. I could damn near take my hand off the wheel and close my eyes it tracks THAT straight.

[reality]

Get a hold of Dusty and be honest with him.


Steve-- isn't an H R bar fashioned off a WOLF.

[Steve Wood]

yes...just not as precise due to the bolt on bolting style of mount

[gusszgs]

Good question, Brad I run my car last year with the ATR style (Aggressive) rear bar ONLY and left the front sway off for 1st time. I easily stepped into the 1.50's on the 60' BUT I wouldn't attribute that to the front bar removal....... more due to setting up the rear better with new posi clutches and adjustable upper arms. And I only TT so I had more spool time.


I will say though, the car handles just fine for me on the street without the front bar. I was expecting it to be a POS handling without the front bar, but barely noticed any change at all. But I tend to drive like a 'geezer' anyway on the street. No corner carver here.

[ULYCYC]

I ran mine for years with the original ATR bar and no front sway bar.  I dont remember any change in 60ft times but maybe a hair quicker in total ET and MPH. A few lbs lighter may have contributed to that.  I seen no difference in street driving, but I dont cut in and out traffic with the ricers at 60mph.

[good2win22]

Just like Jim, I removed mine last year. I don't corner carve the car when driving so no noticeable difference in daily driving the thing. And like Jim, I have a Helwig bar in back with adjustable upper and lowers. Ask Kevin, he saw it launch at BG. Big time weight savings! I haven't weighed the bar and brackets but I would guess it's at a minimum of 30 pounds off the nose of the car

[Shimy87]

Yes it is very heavy!! I also barely notice when its off

[Forzfed]

Took mine off as well and loved how it cornered!    But like everyone else I seen no improvement!

[ss/gn]

I picked up some hollow fronts and will try these and a stock rear bar to see what the car likes. The plan is to find some used ATR bars up here and give that a try down the road. I believe the HR bar is the best but want to keep a stock look to the car. I think new Mickies are in the budget for this year also.