Cleveland

For those who have pulled the front swaybar, what is the overall difference in handling on the street? Im interested because it would help a bit for when I take it to the track.

-Dan

mikem

Not bad on the street.Kinda fun also because the front end will lift very high when you leave hard from a light.But it only takes minutes to remove.18mm and 15mm socket its out.pull out the clips also so they dont fall out.As I am getting ready to go to the track i simply remove it then install it back the next day.

dhof303

I leave mine off all of the time, I only will reinstall it next year when I race on the road course at Hallett OK. I have noticed slightly more body roll while street driving and a little shake in the steering wheel when braking from high speeds but it is nothing that my wife or I couldn't deal with given its benefits at the track and the stoplight.

pittperson

what exactly are the benefits of removing the sway bar?

acadian

I took mine off a couple weeks ago and it drives fine. I can't really tell much of a difference at all making turns. But, I can feel the front wanna raise up a little more under hard acceleration. I'm going to just leave it off.

Also... as soon as I get a free weekend, I'm going to rig up some brackets to hold up the radiator and take the heavy radiator support piece off for good also.

RadBOSS

Result is more over steer because you have shifted the suspension roll stiffness more towards the rear. This is more dangerous than light understeer which the vehicle has been designed for. You have also reduced the maximum cornering capability. You get more body roll and sacrafice front tire alignment relationship to the ground as well.

All together, not a great idea unless you like hanging the tail out and cornering with full opposite lock .... my 02

don_w

Cornering??? What's that? Is that what you do at the end on the dragstrip to get back to the staging lanes? :P


j/k

169stang

Well, the track I go to also has a road coarse and the return road at the end of the 1/4 is a hairpin turn, with a little banking to it. yea, I've really reduced my cornering capabilities! lol I have taken mine off as well and have noticed very little change. I don't take corners at 40 mph either. I'd rather not have my wife smacking me for taking the corner too hard. I have also taken off the rear swaybar and do notice the roll a bit more. The car launchs sick now. What I have really noticed is that the left side comes up a lot higher than the right, which I attribute to the lack of rear sway bar. It twisted a bit before, but a lot now.
Removing that radiator support, swaybar and installing a new radiator support will reduce a bit of weight off the front end.

Stangers

......funny

acadian

Blah, blah, blah... result is more... blah, blah... capability... blah, blah... to the ground. Dude, you are getting way too technical here. Unless you have actually taken the sway bar off, and driven the car hard, don't assume there is oversteer. The car drives perfectly fine. It's not a road racer... I don't take turns (and never will) hard enough to make a difference. It's a street car, and does it's job perfectly fine.

Edit: Check out the original post... it specifically asks what is the difference in handling on the 'street'. The answer to that is none worth worrying about. Now, if someone wants to drive around on the street like it's a road-race track... well, taking the sway bar off would be the least of the things they'd need to worry about going wrong.

SixtySix

Easy Hoss, not everybody lives where you do, you know.

I for instance live where I have city streets, wide open roads and mountain switchbacks, and don't have to leave the city limits to see all that either.

I need my car to perform reasonably well in all of those situations without having to take a wrench to anything.

acadian

I don't live in the city. There are rural roads here too, and drive them every day. No hills, but lots of windy roads. And the car drives fine. If you want to believe someone who supplies nothing more than technical mumbo-jumbo over someone who has actually taken the swaybar off and driven it hard under different conditions... be my guest. I'm just saying what I have experienced... and don't like someone with no real experience telling me that what I did, or am doing, is "dangerous". :ranting: Rant off...

SixtySix

You'll never get it

acadian

Well, why don't you do something useful and exlain it to me, rather than shaking your head at me. :nono:

SixtySix

No

acadian

Didn't think so. <_<

RadBOSS

wow, lots of tension here from someone. Sorry guys I am more into road racing, and pushing the car a little bit on the twisty windy roads when opportunity strikes (and wife at home). I think there is a little over reaction to my comment, but that does not matter ... suit yourself if you don't care about good cornering stability and performance.

With the front sway bar off, the car is not going to flip into the ditch ... however if you find yourself in a sudden crash advoidance situation and others, you would be wishing the beast wasn't oversteering quite so much. There are many other situations as well when oversteer is undesirable. But if you like it that way or don't know better ... knock yourself out.

My primary background is road racing, off road racing and pro rally, with a little drag car experience as well.

For a drag racer set-up the only value I see in removing the front sway bar is weight reduction. On launch with the bar installed it does nothing to the car, except add weight, but is does help lift that left front tire if you like. There may be a little resistance to nose lift from the main support bushings, but that is all.

The left front body lifts up (and the right rear is going down) as a reaction to engine torque and accelleration. For a drag racer set-up, there may be argument for a bigger rear sway bar to stiffen the roll resistance up and keep the chassis a little straighter. If you remove both bars, chassis roll will be noticably more under hard acceleration or turning, but will probably still be well balanced for cornering ... or at least better than with just the rear. The chassis springs inherently offer the remaining chassi roll resistance (which is still quite a lot).

Hope you all have a nice weekend at the drags ... I may take my 05 out some time for a giggle and see if I can get it into the 13's as advertized / reported straight out of the wrapper.

RadBOSS

acadian ... is that a Roush hood scoop on your GT?

Sorry should have read your stats ... so how have you made it functional ... actually ducting air to the inlet?

acadian

RadBOSS... I think what I said got taken out of context. I was originally trying to make a joke, is all. Hence the jester smiley. All I am saying is that I don't feel a difference driving on the street, which was the original question. Of course I understand that removing the swaybar will do something... but I was stating my opinion that I feel no difference. Some might say I am under exaggerating a bit, because of my lack of knowledge on the subject. But, I'm sure you will agree with me that you were exaggerating a bit by using the word 'dangerous' when talking about removing the front sway bar.

Yes, that is a Roush hood scoop. I cut a hole in the hood and am routing the incoming air to the air filter by some flat plastic tubing. Eventually I'll build a heat box around the filter to seal it all up.

RadBOSS

Perhaps 'dangerous' is a bit strong, but in the wrong hands and conditions ... absolutely appropriate. The average driver will not put in opposite lock, enough or fast enough. Whether your car goes from mild understeer completely to oversteer w/o the front bar I can not say. From an engineering standpoint (yep I am one of those) the amount of understeer will be less and likely towards over because of the rear sway bar effect on the cars balance.

If you or others want to experiment to feel / see the difference, find a flat paved spot and mark out a 50' diameter circle ... drive around it at increasing speed and steady throttle until you can't hold it on the circle. With and w/o the front bar you will see a difference in max. speed and vehicle attitude w/respect to the circle. If you have a G-Tech you can see instant cornering G's (might be better if your passenger was doing that).

Let me ask you about your GT stripes. Gap between? Believe generic Shelby spec calls for 2", yours are maybe 1"? Most I see seem to be less than 2", but not sure if optical illusion. Yours came out nice. Planning to do ones on my White 05 Mustang GT ... maybe that Ford Titanium color.

Painted w/clear coat over?