Running No Swaybar/s

[Robo86]

Hey guys,

been a bit of talk around the Silvia camp of not running a front swaybar (or any at all) when drifting.

I've had a good dialed setup for a year or so now and its great, but I'm always up to try something new.

Just wanted to see if anyone on here has played around with it at all?

I know that running no front and a stiffer rear will make it super oversteery (i understand how swaybars work). I've always believed in having a stiffer rear swaybar and a stock front, maybe next drift day ill undo the link and see how i like it.

I think for the theory to work you would have to be running pretty stiff spring rates though. Nigels 180sx doesnt run any at all which is pretty interesting. Anyway ill leave the door open for discussion!

Cheers
Rob.

[motorculture]

Not much to say but go for it!

you and a couple of handful DC-er would be the right candidates to try it out . like you say you've had a nice setup and well in-tuned to your car so any change and you'll instantly notice it .

[bams_keto]

I read this and it got me thinking aswell, i'm going to be running no swaybar in the front of my s14 when its ready but i haven't thought about running it for my 86 because i still use it for abit of grip.

Have a read

[bigm]

i have had a chat with some random mx73 cressida guys in the US and they believe in it. couldnt really give much feedback though. apparently a few people over there do it in their competitive comps wth sucess, all nissan and mazda chassis though (in the comps that is)

i can see its purpose at lower speed tracks like archy, just not sure how qr would go with big speeds. friend of mine removed front swaybar in his cefiro and noticed gains at parklands, but was running stipid spring rates. 12kg or something with an sr upfront. interesting about nigels car though, it has lower spring rates

i will be trying it next QR sesh too, changed too much before short track to do it.

[Skylar]

Huh?!? You take the rear off(upgrade the front, guess which one's cheaper) so there's less lateral load transfer at the rear axle(more downward force on the inside wheel and hence more work[forward bite] due to not having an anti-roll bar fighting the spring).

Car will be more understeer-y but who cares, it's drifting; toe out, handbrake and clutch kicks. more grip, go faster, downside being you need more power since the car has more traction.

Running no front ARB would just do the opposite, turn in better but be slow as hell in drift.

You ever see old pics of race AE86's with a front wheel in the air accelerating out? Same thing. All cornering force at the front is handled by the outside wheel while at the rear the loading is more balanced. Like, instead of the car having 350 kg on the outside wheels and 150kg on the inside, by wedging the car, you get 400kg on the front outside wheel and now 350 on the rear outside and 250 on the rear inside wheel. More weight on rear = more rear grip = more forward bite in drift.

[Rice86]

i think these are one of them things that everyone can debate on all day with the Pros and Cons with facts to fiction and it will never end..

JDM D1 cars run swaybars so all drifters should do it while a new bread of drifters are rocking thir drift missiles naked without swaybars..

To run a swaybar or bare naked is more a preference to the driver, so there really isnt an answer to what really is "better"

and in saying that, im just going to keep the standard swaybars in my s13 *the rears doesn't even have one* and just see how far i can push it before im bothered to play with swaybars lol

[EDIT]

On another note, my mates 180sx has upgrade sway bars, low springs maybe about 2inch lower then standard unknown spring rates but im sure they are just soft king springs of some sort and pedders shocks, strut brace front and rear and his car turns in very well and surprisingly less body roll..i guess my point to this is, you can really tell that the sway bars are doing its job in this setup!

my s13 only has coilovers in and everything else stock, not even strut braces, the car turns in very well but at high speed and fast S bends, weight transfer from left to right is still noticeable, spring rates F 8kg R 6kg, i guess this is where sway bars and chassis stiffness will come to play in my setup, i would think so anyways haha

[marvis]

^ This.

[Jdm-Mcc]

I run no front swaybar. I bought my stanza (sr20de) setup for hillclimb, however it understeered like no tomorrow with the front swaybar on (it was huge) So I took it off, left the stock r31 swaybar on the rear,opposed to upgrading the rear and leaving the front swaybar in and upped the spring rates to 8 F and 6 R and it seems to work well.

My understanding is that without a front swaybar the load is then transfered onto the next thing the body roll loads up, being the rear swaybar then holding the diff more parallel with the body forcing it to break traction in the rear.

I guess its all about how big your swaybars are together. A stock rear swaybar with no front sway bar OR a bigger rear swaybar with a stock front.

Robo- With your current setup does it seem to break traction easy enough with just weight transfer? If so removing the front and leaving the rear on is going to make it pretty tight in the ass end and would seem to want to oversteer massively.

[Skylar]

A faster car is almost always considered a better car is it not? in drifting, drags and circuit work

If your car is lower than your mate's S13 then of course, having the roll centres lower will cause your car to roll more. Having anti roll bars will help reduce body roll at the cost of total grip. A car will have more grip with stiff springs and no anti-roll bars than the same roll rate with anti-roll bars and softer springs given the surface permits using the harder ride rate(up/down spring rate). It's to do with tire load sensitivity and reduced load transfer when using springs only as opposed to ARB's which takes load from the inside wheel and puts it on the outside wheel.

[dungbox]

my ae86 was swaybar-less for a while, i've got a vid i can post up if you like, i'm a muppet tho, i found it grippier on transitions, and made more screeching noises which is annoying, you had to work it alot harder on the flick back etc rest of the setup was 8kg fron 6kg rear not much else
i preffered jus the standard bars to be honest but your a lot better driver than i am so it could be well different for you