Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Autocross and Open Track Sway Bars?

For those of you who do a fair amount of track what sway bars are you using and how does the car handle (neutral?). My SVT is lowered with koni/eibachs and I will be using dot approved race tires. I'm trying to decide on a 22 or 21 mm rear sway bar and was wondering if any of you guys had swapped out the 19mm front bar in the SVT for a 20mm out of a SE (somone recommended this to me)

Funny,
the VW FWD crowd likes to remove their front sway bars....

I guess if you can take the body roll, and drive with it, that is the faster way.

I would figure with your stiffer springs the 19mm Front bar should be fine.

If you haven't run the car on a track before, don't make anymore changes. Use what you have as a baseline and then modify things later.



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John Coffey
johnc@betamotorsports.com

You do not want a bigger front bar on a FWD car. You want the vast majority of your sway control to be on the non driven (in our case the rear) axle. Otherwise, the inside tire on the driven axle will have less pressure, thus less traction, and you will have less ability to bring the power on while exiting a turn.

As JohnC recommended, get some seat time, talk to some people about what mods they have made and with what result, and then start making changes to your car. In Dallas, there is a 5 year old honda civic that consistently kicks my butt and the butt of many cars that I consider faster than the contour. The moral of the story, there is more improvement to be made in your driving than in your car.


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David Mimlitch
davidm@hpnc.com

'00 'Tour SVT T-Red
'99 F250 SuperDuty Powerstroke Diesel 15.1 second 1/4 mile time