I have a MK7.5 GTI. The reason I added a stiffer rear bar had nothing to do with track times. Makes a huge difference in how much more neutral the car feels on the street. I don’t feel much difference in compliance, my suspension is mostly on the softest setting. Probably the easiest and potentially cheapest handling mod. I went low budget with an Eibach bar and metal replacement endlinks. 40K later and still happy.
Yes? It's kind of a complicated question, but here's some generalities: Changing swaybar leverage at one end (front or rear) will generally have the biggest "feel'" effect on the other end. A front bar will tend to increase relative rear grip while a rear bar will tend to increase relative front grip and reduce understeer. So, most folks want to reduce understeer, since that's a common issue with production-based cars, but stiffening the rear bar on a RWD car also reduces side-to-side compliance and can make it trickier to get power down in a high-power car like a Camaro. You also didn't mention which model it was, which is going to affect the diameter of the OEM bars on that particular package. So, all that is to say that if you're going to do just one bar on a performance car, a good place to start is an adjustable rear bar where the range of adjustment varies from softer than stock to stiffer than stock. That makes for a great tuning tool, and rear bars tend to be easier to adjust than front bars because you usually have easier access to the bar ends.
Having run the dynamic rear endlinks IMO the adjustable part is neat, but I would have preferred a static length option with the asymmetrical lower bushing. Adjusting the length on that would not be a fun time compared to the fronts. Also milling flats on the spacer on the top shaft would be nice. Trying to finagle an allen wrench into the end of the shaft is a pain. Mill flats and you could use a box wrench which would be a gamechanger.
Why does increasing rear roll stiffness cause a shift in balance of load to the rear? You're not actually taking any weight off the front end. Also, if body roll dilutes camber, isnt it more intuitive to want to increase roll stiffness in the front of the car?
We’ll have a video on the front bar posted soon, but yes: In certain camber-limited cars (like our GTI), you can find more speed with a bigger front bar, too, as the effect of added dynamic negative camber is more pronounced than the effect of increased front roll stiffness.
I thought bigger sway bars reduced overall grip and decreased the independence of the suspension. I thought body roll didn’t equate to a lack of mechanical grip (Miata’s have body roll but have lots of grip), but it does affect driver confidence, not mechanical grip.
Stiffer sway bars can increase overall grip if they're used to reduce undesirable camber loss. A stiffer sway bar doesn't only (in general) reduce grip at that end of the car, it adds grip to the other end by keeping the whole car flatter.
You keep mentioning your little Miata, I can see who you are now. yes I am judging. The more you mention your Miata the more the more hairgel and make up starts to show. Obvious
