Stabilizers

[pergatory]

I noticed from looking around on this thread that a lot of people use stabilizers. While I must admit that I used them as well, I really think that you would find that the car handles better without them.

Here's the idea:
What are stabilizers? (aka: Anti-Roll Bars, Sway Bars) They are torsion bars that connect the front two wheels together (front bar) and rear two wheels together (rear bar). The effect is that it increases lateral springrate, the side-to-side springrate. As the car enters a turn, the force of the car pushing down on the outside wheels twists the stabilizer and actually increases the force on the inside tire as well, so that the car leans less through corners.

This may seem like a good idea initially, but in reality what the stabilizers do is reduce side-to-side weight transfer which is something that is essential for a good driver. So while the stabilizers may make the car more stable and more predictable to the beginner mentality, once the driver obtains the skill to predict the motions of the car and transfer weight effectively, it will actually be better to drift without stabilizers.

Everyone has different styles and so I'd like to know your opinions. Do you prefer high or low stabilizer settings?

 

[mindless_dude]

well if you set them level4 you can consider(spelling?)it little soft but it depends on your driving style

 

[CudaMan]

I never alter the sway bar settings... they're always left at 3/3. In real life however, I'm installing bigger bars on my car to reduce body roll. Is this a bad move for drifting? See my car is a race car and drift car and daily driver all in one... I'm trying to make it very versatile.

 

[Ethix101]

I usually leave mine set at either 3 or 4. IRL I'd rather have really stiff sway bars, (Body Roll=Evil) hehe

 

[Kamui D]

you want less picth of your car, and it also reinforces teh chassis, i always bump em whay up, becaus ei feel i can controll the car better.

 

[pergatory]

They do reduce body roll, but what is body roll? It's weight transfer. You want at least a little body roll so you can toss it around. Less body roll makes for a more comfortable ride, but you can almost reduce body roll with nice springs alone and in my opinion the car feels overall better-balanced. But hey, everyone has their own style.

 

[bengee]

the trick is balance between all aspects of suspension tuning... a car without sway bars is seriously handicapped... but so is one with extremely stiff ones... the same applies to suspension... many people truly believe that my lowering there car and bumping up both sping and shock rates that there car will take corners better... the same applies to extremely stiff sway bars... if you prevent your LIGHT car from transfering weight you are essentially handicapping it... this applies to both spring and sway bar tuning... you want your wheels to be able to travel and different forces on different wheels to maximize your cornering grip or at least balance it properly for drift and regular driving...

a balanced light car is definately the best possilbe combination for improved vehicle dynamics... balanced meaning smallest possible radius at any speed with greatest driver control as a result...

for heavier cars or car entering corners at much higher speeds than what would occur on roads... higher spring rates in all areas of suspension as well as stiffer and stronger struts would be needed... in these cases slightly higher rates help prevent the car from exceeding the travel allowed by suspension and actual body design while making the heavy and/or fast car's limits more accessable and the car easier to drive...

for every car there is a perfect and neutral suspension setting... and rarely does it occur when all or any spring rates are extremely high... plus such springs are easier to damage and end up harder on your tires and car because no oscilations ( however dampened) occur and the car is not much more than bouncing as a body ( tires and all) rather than tires always or almost always on the road...

for a down to earth and extreme exable... rally cars are higher and do not employ extremely hard springs to be able to accomadate the extreme nature of hte tracks they perform on by allowing for travel and weight transfer in turns to amximize the cars grip potential at all times...

 

[VenomousDrift]

IRL, I need sway bars, as a thicker rear bar get's the rear end looser in corners, and combing it with a bigger front bar counters that and makes the car handle infinately better. I'm also getting a front strut tower brace and rear subframe connectors. FF cars need a bit more help to handle good. FR's can get away with less goodies because the FR makes them inherintly easier to drive quickly for someone with good knowledge of car dynamics.

Venom

 

[bengee]

very true about ff cars... even with a looser steering system and extreme lightweight... a lot of tuning would be needed to improve there handling capabilities... i guess i just think about fr mr or 4wd when i think about vehickle dynamics... kinda think ff is not worth the brain cells... that would change if i had an ff car lol

 

[akina_86]

the stabalizer is one of the most imortant thing for speed drifting. u can see that if u set a 7 7 than the car become more stable but harder to control. in addition set a combination of both to create a powerful drifting machine. i think of the stablizers as strut bar.

heres the seting i use

front 4 and rear 5 maybe 6 sometimes. this is because i want the rear to be stable while the front to absorb and turn. stablizer also sacrifices your suspensions also.

those settings help me perform 80mph speed drift. also maintain speed during griping.

 

[huZba]

Mora stable car means more control. The anti-roll bars can make the car faster during drift. Also, weight shifting doesn't mean throwing the car around with maximum body roll. You can weight shift with almost zero body roll.

 

[pergatory]

Originally posted by huZba
Also, weight shifting doesn't mean throwing the car around with maximum body roll. You can weight shift with almost zero body roll.

Good point (although I never said "maximum body roll"). On daily drivers and such, where high springrates are not desirable, sway bars can be very effective at limiting body roll. However, a track car is a whole other animal. With higher springrates, lateral roll is reduced to almost nothing even without sway bars, which makes them IN MOST CASES entirely unnecessary. I will admit that they can be useful in some cases but most of the time people just slap on some decently thick sway bars and assume it was a good thing, which is also what I tend to see in most peoples settings on this board.