wrong again, stiffening the REAR ANTI-SWAY bar or ADDing a rear strut bar will increase UNDERSTEER. This goes for all FWD cars. Another way to say this would be decreasing stiffness on the front anti sway bar will increase the understeer as well.

You WANT to increase the stiffness on the front axle, thats why the stock sway bar in the front is much thicker than in the rear.

Now on a RWD car, you want (if your looking for understeer) stiffer anti sway bars or added strut bar to the front than on the rear.

The science behind this is, for FWD car, that if you have more traction in the front on the drive wheels than on the rear tires due to body roll, then you will get a fish tail effect and the car will inadvertantly have a more oversteer characteristic.

Now for a RWD car, if you apply this same science then you'll notice that the drive wheels which are now in the back are loosing traction due to the body roll motion and can't "push" the car through the turn as well. Also now you have more traction on the front tires also notice the engine weight is up front which will give the car a tendancy to dart the car out of the turn in a understeer kind of way. A RWD car with stiffer rear sway bars can't get more driving traction to push a car through the turn. Drift cars force the car to loose traction in an oversteer method by over powering the rear wheels or e-braking to break traction, or double clutching, etc.

you've just been schooled enjoy

If you dont believe me, try this out on your own. remove sway bar endlinks either the front or back on your car and try driving in circles as hard as you can in an empty lot. remove front endlinks to lossen the front end up, remove rear endlinks to loosen the rear up.

P.S. - To be really technical its not how stiff your sway bar or strut bar or whatever is that helps the handling, its a balancing act between the stiffness of the front and the rear antisway bar. If they're too tight your gonna get funky tire wear and loss in performance. If they're too loose, your gonna loose crap loads of performance. The sway-bar is the number one area to tune the car if you want to master the turns. changing suspension sure does help dont only to an extent and you'll be using big money to get the adjustable kind. To tune sway bars, you just need adjustable swaybar endlinks, they're like $200. Also not to mention but swapping out suspension to get a lower center of gravity might also cause your car inconveniencies such as bottoming out pulling into and out of driveways, or going over railways or crappy roads.

 

Stiffening the rear antisway bar will make the car oversteer a little more than stock which gives it a neutral balance. Strut bar will have absolutely no effect on the handling of any Cobalt as the strut towers are welded to the firewall.

 

Front strut bar will do jack all for your handling.

ADDING a rear sway bar changes the vehicles roll center, stiffens and stabilises the entire car. It will NOT induce understeer, it does exactly the opposite and helps with rotation of the rear of the car.

I know this because I did this ON a race track back to back. Ran the car stock, added the OTTP 1.0" bar ran the car then tried the OTTP 1.25" bar.

For the $200 it costs for a rear sway bar, it is probably one of the best mods you could do. It made the car more neutral than it is stock with the 1" bar. It also helped out big with high speed stability in fast corners and even on the straights.

I would 100% recommend getting one over a strut bar, and if you do any kind of spirited driving you will notice the difference, and you will not be dissapointed.

 

Exactly. I put on a JDM rear sway on my RSX-S when I had it. I think it went from the stock 19mm to... hmmm... I think it was 22mm.

Anyway, yes, it gave it a very neutral feel with just SLIGHT oversteer when really pushed.

So for people who need a little help here...

SWAY BARS - stiffer front = UNDERSTEER
stiffer rear = OVERSTEER

Front strut bar on SS/TC = little to no effect

 

so you guys are telling me that having better traction in the back allows the car to turn into corners faster? It doesnt seem right to me, physically that doesnt add up. that logic is sound for rear wheel drive cars, not fwd.

 

I don't know if I should laugh or not. You didn't school ****. FWD cars ARE prone to understeer more because more WEIGHT is on the front suspension. That entire balancing act between the two sway bars is the same on a FWD, RWD, or AWD car. You CAN make a FWD car so it oversteers when pushed by stiffening the REAR sway bar. I might be mistaken but I think the SS/TC's sways are the same front and rear. But look at almost any other FWD car. The front is bigger (stiffer, tighter... choose your term). Manufacturers WANT understeer in cars because for an inexperienced driver this is considered safer.

It's the same for either. FWD cars just have a tendency to understeer because of the weight over the front suspension. (Not to mention manufacturers purposely make cars this way)
So if you take a FWD car that weighs 3000lbs and a RWD car that weighs 3000lbs it might take a different combo of front and rear sways to get balance. (there are many factors really) However, the principle of what a stiffer front or rear is the same.
Stiffer front = understeer
Stiffer Rear = oversteer

Example, my old RSX-S. It had a bigger front SWAY bar than the rear. It understeered pretty bad when pushed. I put on a JDM larger (stiffer) rear sway and it had just an ever so slight oversteer tendency. BUT... the rear was STILL smaller diameter than the front. The reason is the front had more weight to deal with than the rear. So as a ratio the rear was actually a bit "stiffer". See what I'm saying?

And a strut bar has nothing at all to do with body roll. Take a car with lots of body roll and put a strut tower bar on it. It's going to have body roll still. The strut tower bar just keeps the flexing out so that your suspension geometry, angles and such remain the same when under heavy load, or you hit a bump, etc.

 

Do you turn better with two or four wheels?



The logic is that.

4 contact patches>2 contact patches

And your rear do some work, with a properly set up suspension

 

I tried to get one developed my crazy steve. It was almost done and they haven't called me yet to do final fitment.

Not sure what's up.

 

well, when you take a quick turn your using only two tires, the outside tires. the inside tires are only working some stability factors but since the weight shifts outwards and the car tends to body roll that way then yea, you are turning using two tires.

yea, I see your point, about how the rear stiffening helps oversteer now. I have to visualize these things . Imagining the front twisting under body roll, while the rear does less twisting under body roll. In that instance it looks like you only steering with one wheel, the outside drive wheel while the the othe wheel is stabilizing the car. In the situation I described, by stiffening the front end suspension, your allowing both front drive wheels to gain better traction and thus when accelerating through a turn the car can pull through it. Thats how I saw it. sorry for being wrong

 

Yeah that's better thinking. The sway bars help keep the weight from transferring so much and loading up the outside tires so the that inside tires can have more grip to assist the turn as well. Since the suspension is ultimately mounted to the body it will want to flex the body. That's where strut tower bars come in. But if on the SS/TC the towers are welded to the firewall. The firewall itself is acting as a strut tower bar.

You're still using four tires, but yes, you're right. The outside ones are taking the majority of the work.

But I would advise against people who really don't know what they're doing (I include myself in this group) from screwing around too much with suspension. Especially when the SS/TC's is very very good just as it is. TOO stiff... is not a good thing. The only reason cars like F1 cars get away with it is they have tons of downforce and a relatively flat, clean, surface drive on. We have to deal with potholes, sand, snow, RR crossings, etc. When I modded my Acura, I bought a JDM rear sway and A-spec suspension which was manufactured by Acura for that vehicle. Then front and rear Cusco strut tower bars. I was VERY pleased with the results. Throwing together a wild combination of aftermarket parts can really screw things up. Strut tower bars, well it will benefit or it won't. There's not too much it can really hurt.

 

well, I better retune all my cars in Forza 2, maybe I can finally win some races!!!

 

confirmed, I even talked to the GMPP engineers about it and they even tested them and said they did nothing for performance on the cobalt.