Deenasty

Thinking of taking my car to the track today to do some datalogging shake down runs. Do you guys think its dangerous to run it without a rear sway bar?

respectirocz

dangerous? i think not, wise? i also think not,

drag racing, u want a big fat rear sway bar and no front sway bar for max traction

godofdragons

excuse my ignorance but how does a front sway bar affect traction?

Norm Peterson

In at least a couple of different ways.

First is perhaps the more obvious, where eliminating the front bar gets rid of some resistance to letting the front rise (which drags the sprung mass CG up with it, and in turn, increases rearward load transfer).

The other is that it affects where engine torque reaction is ultimately resisted, which is in some distribution between the front and rear wheels. What you want to do is force more of the engine torque reaction toward the rear, as this will "re-plant" the RR tire (that your driveshaft torque is trying to unweight). The big rear sta-bar is one part of the solution, as its extra roll stiffness attracts a larger share of the torque reaction rearward. Losing the front bar is another part, in that not having it there (or at least de-activated by unbolting one endlink) reduces the percentage of torque reaction attracted forward.

Just don't leave your car in the "no front bar/huge rear bar" condition for daily driving, as this tends to make the car rather "tail-happy" (think 'drifting', without intending to do so).

Deenasty - unless for some reason you're worried about understeering clear off the pavement or into something solid or otherwise unpleasant, having no rear bar is not a safety concern. Handling probably will be less responsive, rather than evil. IOW, safe. As discussed, straight line traction will be reduced somewhat.

Norm

respectirocz

yea, the way it was explained to me was the torque reaction of the axle wants to pick up the right rear tire while dropping the right rear of the car and thats usually the tire that spins

the byproduct of the front sway bar being bigger than the rear is a torsionally stiff front end, removing the front, or disconnecting it makes the rear more stiff and it the torque reaction is split more to the front than to the rear from the axle,

reducing the torque reaction in th rear, allows the rear right tire to stick to the ground better