My HS build

[Jason@SportsCar]

Originally Posted by CoryM

Yeah, it always comes down to keeping the driver happy. You're right, mid corner shows a hint of understeer, but immediately transitions into rear rotation so I am OK with it. It's very brief, to the point you don't have time to correct it before it sorts out. As far as camber, I was after more contact patch on the inside tire, which the front bar gains and more neg camber reduces.



I can't see it being in my head. After 4.5 years of racing the car, put the F bar on and after 3 events to get used to it and tune pressures: I'm certain on this car at these autoX events it is faster. I realized last night I'll just run my wet tires for the winter series and hope for enough wet days to compete. You've run this setup? This exact setup? On a 5dr with 205/50/r15 on 15x5.5" rims? .... why?

As far as the front bar goes I want to be clear: I did not install the front bar to control balance. When chassis tuning, I always try to maximize grip first, then adjust until balance is right. This is the same as tire pressure tuning; maximize grip with temp probe or chalk, then adjust pressures to reduce grip where needed for balance. The sway bar does the same, except I am using it to help compensate for the high CG. I wanted more grip from my inside front tire, and the front swaybar accomplished this. I was able to reduce neg camber up front to -2.5° (which I forgot to include in my first post), this not only improves the inside tire contact patch further, it also makes a large difference to the braking grip(VS -2.8° which was my previous). After adjusting the balance with rear tire pressures, I am comfortable that it is well set-up, and the co-drivers (once they get used to timing the soft springs) agree so far. I also have pictures to show I have much more contact patch than before.

Who knows, maybe I'm crazy but I've always figured the whole point of suspension was to keep as much rubber in contact with the road as often as possible (or at least when it's required). The front bar seems to accomplish this without causing too many compromises so I am happy.

All that being said, the Yaris is now getting totally forgotten about while I sort out the E-mod car for it's first season.

Cheers.

Swaybars build grip on the opposite end of the car they are attached to. They do this by providing a lifting force to the inside tire - as the outside tire compresses the swaybar transfers the load and pushes the connected tire in the same direction. You are in fact reducing grip on the axle the bar is attached to.

Swaybars in general are a crutch for a poorly tuned suspension. That said, you are limited in HS with the mods you can do, and one of them wont be fixing the lack of spring rate, so you do what you can. In a fwd car the last thing I want to do is remove front grip, and that is what a bigger front bar is doing.

I would go the other way and find a way to transfer as much grip from the rear of the car to the front. Go with a bigger rear bar, or get a set of proper rear shocks that will help suck up that back tire quicker, forcing grip to the front.

In our car we dont even run a rear bar, just droop limiters in the rear shocks that pick the back tire up almost instantly.