RuS4

By installing rear swaybar, does it defeat the purpose of the rear independent suspension?

frank

but you already have one STOCK

so it's just a compromise, between tying the two sides together for improved traction

and letting the suspension behave independently

a little more or a little less.....depends on the car, the SB and your preference as a driver

NASA racer

I tried to explain this simply three times and failed. Lets see if this works.

Suffice to say that anti-roll bars DO reduce the independence but up to a point that is a good thing for overall control. PAST that point, you end up with unpredictible and unforgiving handling because you ruin the ability of the suspension to actually BE compliant to the extent it needs to be.

AFIK, ALL cars have anti-roll bars on at least ONE end and they are designed as PART of the suspension, not an afterthought.

In the simplest terms...cars with "luxury" or "soft" rides will have soft anti-roll bars (to enable maximum independence but at the expense of keeping all the motion under control) and "sporty" cars will have stiffer anti-roll bars to keep the motion from UPSETTING the contact of the tires with the road and better sharing the cornering forces across the car so the loaded side is not fully at the mercy of the forces acting on it (the anti-roll bar acts back against the force).

Nogaro

Since its a mod to the rear, it reduces tractions int back right? Or does it increase traction in the front?

VonK :: Retired

When a car leans in a turn, the sway bar takes part of the extra load on the outside wheel and transfers it to the inside wheel, such that it acts against the force of the inside spring. If the sway bar is too stiff, a bump at one wheel will be telegraphed noticeably to the other wheel, thereby possibly upsetting traction in turns and under threshold braking. But that takes a far stiffer sway bar than I've seen offered on the aftermarket.

kcS4

in hard turns, great a low speeds, a little more exciting at high speeds, at high speed the stock bar is a good comprimise, a low speed the stiffer bar makes a difference

NASA racer

there is no way to actually increase traction except increasing tire adhesion...in a car with already good suspension there isn't much you can do. Stiftening it doesn't add adhesion, it dampens body movement which can upset the car by abrupt weight transferrs.

The problem is that due to weight and layout on the S4, the front ALWAYS has less traction than the rear (just like our Civic race car). In order to make the car "turn in" the balance is changed somewhat by cutting down on rear traction...once the front and rear traction is closer...things like throttle steering become easier...as does oversteer and sudden snap oversteer. You gotta be careful because that understeeri is partially dialed-in to keep the car controllable in emergency situations.

Our basic goal with the Civic is to nearly ELIMINATE rear traction...sure that outside rear tire is always there but the inside rear doesn't even touch the ground in turns and our goal is to make the rear as stiff as possible in order to make the rear have less grip than the front so the car can be "rotated".

You end up with a nasty car but on a race track its liveable...just not plesant. Every time I go from the Civic to any street car I have...I'm always AMAZED at how well the street car turns-in. What people react to with the stiffer sway bar is the balance is changed so the front/rear traction is closer and there is less understeer (because there is more oversteer to counteract some of the understeer...NOT because the front sticks better).

VonK :: Retired

.... with only the outside rear contact patch on the ground, what does lowering the rear tire pressure do on your Civic:

1. Increase oversteer, because the more flexing tire translates more laterally

2. Increase understeer, because the contact patch gets larger, allowing more traction

3. 1. and 2. cancel out.

Innovator

I don't notice any loss of traction. And I really
push hard in the twisties :-)