Suspension upgrades, Mass. confusion Options

[wndsnd]

Trying to figure out what is the difference between sway bars, anti roll bars and torsion bars. Expensive stuff - Is it worth it for the road if I do no autocross?

[toolguy]

"Sway bars and anti-roll bars are the same thing IMHO. Some are adjustable. They keep the body level and as you go through a corner when the inside wheel wants to lift off the ground they help to keep it planted."

The purpose of a sway bar is to transfer weight of the car in turns. . Now think of all the pictures of racing Porsches going around a turn with the inside tire 3 inches off the ground. . .

Actually, the sway bar increases the lift of the inside tire, and pushes down harder on the outside tire. . . that makes that end of the car want to slide more. So a real stiff sway bar on the front will makes the front 'understeer" or "push"
. . . a rear bar will tend to make the back end want to swing around in a turn. .
So now you are thinking why would you want them if they make the car slide around?? the answer is complex. . . what they do is keep the car flat which is advantageous on faster turns.. the trick is to balance the stiffness of the front and the rear bars, so both ends slide an equal amount, IE allow you to drift through a turn sideways. This is in a faster turn only. . on slower turns, a lot of drivers will adjust the bars looser or even disconnect the rear bar altogether.

Even back in the 70's, racing Porsches had sway bars that were adjustable from inside the cockpit by the driver when racing. I remember it was a lever that controlled the position of the drop link on the sway bar end arm. . For it's time it was really slick.

The factory set up street 914s to be relatively neutral for ease of driving and safety, and then guys like us come along and want things to be better, as in we think we are smarter than the engineers that designed these car. . Well, we can be if we take a lot more than sway into consideration. . . change ONE thing and you affect something else- is the rule. . . so just putting on a front bar will make the front 'seem' better because you got rid of the nagging body sway a little. . . what you really want to do to control sway and keep the car's wheels planted is increase the torsion bars and rear springs stiffness. . . but this too comes at a price. . It rides like a go cart and beats you to death. . .

SO in essence, how much of a comfort ride are you willing to give up and how fast do you take turns ?? an autocross is a mild spring and sway bar set up. . . . time trials are a little more on the stiff side. . . Real race car are stiff as hell with little to no suspension give at all. . .

Just my 2 cents