I know this is the case because at the bottom of our drive way, which is 250 meters long,
You don’t need a ‘racecar for the street’ with coilovers and 500lb+ spring rates to make a Mustang handle well on track. Heck, the new 2020 Shelby GT500 that I worked on (as a development driver) is faster on track than most supercars, and it doesn’t have spring rates anywhere near that stiff. And that’s a 4,000+lb car with 305 width Cup 2 front tires on it!
...is a complete suspension system that includes springs, swaybars, and shocks for less than the price (often ½ to 1/3 the price) of most coilovers. This package delivers track-capable performance while maintaining excellent ride quality that you can live with everyday without the suspension beating you up or creaking, squeaking, and clanking over bumps.
We ditched the super sticky grease that came with the swaybar bushings that are known to quickly lead to squeaking. Instead, we are using NanoPro MT Marine Grease. We have had a lot of success using in balljoints, axle shafts, and various other bushings.
To finish off the swaybars, we replaced the original non-adjustable end links with these adjustable billet aluminum ones from Steeda. The adjustable links allow the length to be adjusted so there is zero preload on the swaybar, which will cause uneven tire loading and handling.
I was initially skeptical with the idea of running the 1.25” rear bar for track use because the BOSS 302R’s that I drove to victory so many times in the Grand-Am series used custom ½-7/8” rear swaybars. Having that much roll resistance in the rear of the car would likely just cause a lack of rear grip.
An important takeaway is that BIGGER IS NOT ALWAYS BETTER. Throwing a massive rear swaybar on a car, especially a Mustang, is often not the best answer to reduce understeer. A car’s handling is an entire SYSTEM and once change can often adversely affect many others. For the S197 platform, I would try to use the smallest and softest rear swaybar I could get away with, and focus on adding front grip rather than taking away rear grip.
Yowie wrote:“Squares up/rear catches up a lot better in corners.”
Not my choice of descriptive words, but I can see the logic behind it:
If the base setting of a factory all-wheel-drive Subaru is "understeer" that means the front is ploughing on straight even though the wheels are turned - "not enough front grip**". Understeer is popular for stock passenger cars because it is safer in the hands of an untrained driver reacting instinctively.
As a reminder, "oversteer" is where the back end swings out during a turn - "not enough rear grip**"
[**relative to the opposite end of the car]
A car that is balanced/neutral through the corner would have approximately equal grip between the front and rear ends of the car.
One of the features of a swaybar is by stiffening up that end of the car it reduces grip** at that stiffened end. As such the chassis can be tuned via swaybars for the balance that the driver seeks.
Back to the "understeer" base setting of the stock Subaru - a driver who wants to make the handling more neutral can add a thicker swaybar to the rear. This is a cheap, popular modification on Foresters (and perhaps other models) for that reason.
In my view “Squares up/rear catches up a lot better in corners.” is not the best description of the above, but not the worst either. At the end of the day the rear end is moving more and the car is rotating more through the corner after the thicker rear bar goes on.
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Note, Swaybars do more than just subtract grip** from one end or the other. I have thicker swaybars front and rear. The overall reduction in bodyroll and improved grip is noticable - all four tyres are in better more square contact with the bitumen. When I had the larger rear bar and the stock front bar the car would tend to push understeer through fast sweeping bends. With stiffer front and rear it is more settled.
It is interesting to me that the "hot" vehicle models from factory often have stiffer swaybars front & rear than the grocery version of the same car.
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