Okay, here's the deal: The ATI deal is taking forever, but I think when and if it happens it will be a quality product, hopefully at a decent price. For those reasons, and the fact that ATI is a great company that has helped out CEGers before, I don't want to mess up that GB. So, for now, I'll say this is NOT a GB. If a) ATI wants to bail, which would be a shame, b) we can get enough people to do two GBs, or c) ATI can't com through at a good price, then this can happen. If people start dropping out of the ATI Aussie buy becuase of this, I will close it up and not release any details, so don't try to bail on the Aussie bar for this deal until we get things figured out.
The scoop: I talked to Company X. Company X can make sway bars for us. They can make a 7/8" solid swaybar that would be heavier than the Aussie and not quite as stiff: 15% less. However, if would be perfect for street cars as it would keep handling neutral even at higher speeds, and really, when you have 50lbs of subs, what's 2 more lbs of swaybar? I THINK this would be identical to the Addco bar you can buy now, but I can't get details from Addco: their loss. The onyl difference is Addco is $160 shipped, this bar would be $100 + ship. This would also be a great stiffness for road-racing, but serious racers might care about the extra weight. This bar is a good bit stiffer than the 20.5 (21)mm BAT bar.
They can also make a 1" hollow bar. This would be 15% STIFFER than the Aussie bar, and just a hair heavier. I would sell this for "off-road" use only, since it would be pretty serious. It would be the perfect bar for auto-cross, especially with Stazi's endlinks and the poly bushings. I've heard that the Aussie bar may be a little too much for high-speed racing, so this bar would probably be too much. However, for those that are running a pretty serious suspension set-up and want ALL the undesteer gone, this would be the stiffest bar ever made for the Contour/Cougar platform.
I can't see getting both of these made. Personally, I think that for most CEGers use, a $100 7/8" swaybar would add negligible weight (about the same as half a gallon of gas) and provide near-perfect all-around handling. Obviously SVTs with the smaller front bar, and cars with Stazi or other aftermarket endlinks would have more effective stiffness from this bar. This is what I would get, and I think it would be THE bang-for-the buck handling mod. The 1" hollow bar has a market, but there are very few hardcore auto-x racers here. However, if the Aussie bar falls through, this will be VERY close in specs to that. It's 340% stiffer than stock, the Aussie is 345% stiffer. Not a huge difference.
So, with enough people (Company X wants 50), we could run this GB for the 7/8" for people who aren't sure if they need the Aussie, or who can't wait; and keep the Aussie group bar rolling. So, if you are interested, please put yourself in one of four categories:
If you are in the Aussie GB:
1: I'll get the 1" if the Aussie GB falls through.
2: I'll get the 7/8" if the Aussie GB falls through.
3: I'll bail and go with the 7/8" bar.
If you aren't:
4: I'll sign up for the 7/8" right now.
NOTE: DO NOT REMOVE YOURSELF FROM THE AUSSIE LIST!
I won't ruin two group buys by competing within CEG, and I won't sour relationships with ATI over this. If we do both, we'll only take option 3 from a few people, so both can happen.
