Rear Stabilizer or Sway Bar

[Lawrence C Leung]

By "must" I meant to be "harmonious". I rather doubt a rear sway added
only car would be smooth in driving, particularly in transitions. If only
a rear sway was added, the car may transition in a "two-step" fashion,
i.e. it turns in at one rate with the rear bar, then, as the roll camber
gain occurs as the turn progresses, at a new rate occurs, mid turn. It
may not make the car snap spin or be dangerous, just less predictable and
not as fast. 

LL  - NY

On Sat, 18 Nov 2000 08:30:39 -0700 (MST) Iain Mannix
<mannix at privateI.com> writes:
>
>
>On Fri, 17 Nov 2000, Lawrence C Leung wrote:
>
>> I guess the best way to put things is, you must do something at the 
>front
>> as well as the rear to make it all work out harmoniously. 
>
>"Must?"  I'm not sure that's accurate.  It may be that a stiffer 
>rear bar would make a change at the front desireable, but somehow, 
>I doubt it.  Good camber curve or not, I do not believe adding a 
>rear bar to a 5k is going to make the car undrivable/constantly 
>wanting to spin.
>
>"Common" knowledge only applies in some cases, IME.  The whole 
>"no front bar" debate in VW land is a good one; some say NFB, 
>as bars promote understeer/make the car spin wheels exiting corners.
>Some say you should use a front bar to control camber curve.  
>
>Of course, in the case of the VW, this includes a rear bar - 
>you "must" have a rear bar on a VW, right?  
>
>Sure.  Right.  (sarcasm).  Rear bars *can* do good things on a 
>vw, but they don't always.  
>
>Point is, adding a rear bar to a 5k _might_ make other changes 
>a good idea, but this "must-proper-tuner" stuff makes me itch:).  
>It is a car, not rocket science - if you put too much rear bar on, 
>spin it at the end of the driveway, maybe something else needs 
>doing:).  
>
>My .02.  If it makes sense, try it.
>
>
>Iain
>