The question was really about after lowering your car, who has upgraded sways bars and what was the difference, if any
Any lowered guys upgrade sway bars?
- Thread starter '14 Shelby
- Start date
The question was really about after lowering your car, who has upgraded sways bars and what was the difference, if any
to help clarify - rear bars
v6 22mm
gt 24mm
svt base 23mm
svt perf. pack 25mm
boss 25mm
laguna 26mm
with OEM quality you are not upgrading your rear bars, just changing the rate and helping gain clearance for big tires, that's why BMR's rear bar is cool.
1. too much rear stiffness may smoke your diff pretty quick in an S197. example, you cant get a 26mm bar w/o a torsen diff from the factory, it will be toasted on track. 25mm ok, 26.. no.
2. roll couple = difference between front and rear roll rates. more rear rate is usually a road course thing to gain steering and help the car stop understeering. too much rear bar and the car wont feel right, it will just translate around a corner.
3. square setup is needed on a mustang for road work, I don't agree w the staggered 285 / 255 setup on the boss.. I like it square and still keep the boss rear bars.
4. boss front and gt front bars are the same, same with the cobra... they are all stiff and I think ford just tunes the coil rates and shocks to get the roll couple they want.
5. put a v6 bar on a GT - it turns into a snow plow since the roll rate is so low in back its an understeer monster. add to that wide rear tires and the car becomes very annoying to drive around corners fast.
6. pitch of the car also affects roll couple and roll rate, boss leans forward for the effect of a larger rear bar still, but w/o the complications. imo.
7. since we all use aftermarket coil springs, and we lower the car differently, rear bars should be upgraded only if you want something to tune with (3 hole bar) or need big tire clearance. follow the vorshlag saga and you'll see.
v6 22mm
gt 24mm
svt base 23mm
svt perf. pack 25mm
boss 25mm
laguna 26mm
with OEM quality you are not upgrading your rear bars, just changing the rate and helping gain clearance for big tires, that's why BMR's rear bar is cool.
1. too much rear stiffness may smoke your diff pretty quick in an S197. example, you cant get a 26mm bar w/o a torsen diff from the factory, it will be toasted on track. 25mm ok, 26.. no.
2. roll couple = difference between front and rear roll rates. more rear rate is usually a road course thing to gain steering and help the car stop understeering. too much rear bar and the car wont feel right, it will just translate around a corner.
3. square setup is needed on a mustang for road work, I don't agree w the staggered 285 / 255 setup on the boss.. I like it square and still keep the boss rear bars.
4. boss front and gt front bars are the same, same with the cobra... they are all stiff and I think ford just tunes the coil rates and shocks to get the roll couple they want.
5. put a v6 bar on a GT - it turns into a snow plow since the roll rate is so low in back its an understeer monster. add to that wide rear tires and the car becomes very annoying to drive around corners fast.
6. pitch of the car also affects roll couple and roll rate, boss leans forward for the effect of a larger rear bar still, but w/o the complications. imo.
7. since we all use aftermarket coil springs, and we lower the car differently, rear bars should be upgraded only if you want something to tune with (3 hole bar) or need big tire clearance. follow the vorshlag saga and you'll see.
Should I assume all GTs have a 24mm rear bar and that SVT is referring to the GT500?
Yes, all the gt's are 24mm. Svt = gt500.
Thanks for chiming in...I actually installed the Hotchkis sway in my sig. I went with the middle hole of 3 on the rear and the third setting up front. Havent had a lot of time to drive it yet but I noticed much less oversteer/ I realize my setup is not optimal with the large rear tires, but its what I have for the street.
Before I lowered it the oversteer wasn't so bad, it got worse after lowering. The new sways seem to have fixed that and improved a bit, but I need to drive it more.
Sway bars are something I have done qute a bit of research on and have gone through a few different configurations myself. If you have stiff springs and coilovers you may not need a rear swaybar at all. On the other hand, if you use soft Boss Springs like I do then you want to go for bigger swaybars to control that body lean. A stiffer rear bar will make your corner flatter but also can lead to oversteer and less grip. That is why the Swaybars have to be matched and you must take rubber into account. The staggered set-up is the reason The Boss and Laguna Seca run bigger rear bars. Because without the biger rear bars the extra grip from the bigger tires in the back will overhelm the front tires and lead to understeer. Square setup on the GT, smaller rear bar. right now I am experimenting and Have a Strano front bar on the second setting and a H&R 26 inch bar in the rear. Since I am runing a staggered setup (which i think is superior for the street) and soft Boss 302 springs, the bigger bars are necessary to control body roll and to hold my line at the track. But should I get on it a little too much coming out of a curve then I expect slightly less rear grip and that is where the Torsen comes in. But if you think that a stiffer rear bar give you more rear grip, that is not quite how it works.
That Torsen really helps also - its one big upgrade I need to do.
you bring up a great point about bushing rubber. two SVT guys i know race all the time, one has an sn95 and he replaced a lot of the bushings with ball joints. this helped feel a lot, and help keep the camber correct over bumps. when we develop bars like this there is a tuning set of bushing rubber for everything, so many combinations are tried to meet the requirements of the vehicle dynamics gurus. but as you said, for a unique combo you must tune yourself.
one thing that's a big trend is bonding the bushing rubber to the front stabar. that's not going anywhere. notice the track pack 2015's also get the bonded bushings and i would guess svt is going the same way. that's as close as you can get to a ball bearing stabar, and will really help with on center feel.
how is your torsen working out of corners?
w15j
New Member
Sorry to bring up an old thread. Any other comments who have added this (rear sway bar) to their list of mods?
25mm eibach works great.
I measured the rear on my 2013 and it's 25mm (I mic'd it with a calibrated unit) I tried to buy a Ford Racing set from Shelby and when it arrived the rear was smaller than the factory unit. The guy at Shelby tried to convince me that there was no larger rear bar made........to which I answered well what about Steeda's? He seemed baffled at the comment. And then I questioned how this guy in the shop that builds the GT500 knows so little about Mustangs.....and haven't spent a dime with SHelby since
the stock GT is 24mm (2011-2014), the Boss is 25mm, LS 26mm. These sizes only work if you have factory softer springs - and stuff like Eibach or Steeda lowering springs as those are soft also. Steeda will need a slightly smaller rear bar but you can determine that based on driving it hard.
IF you go coilovers and much higher spring rats (350-550 front, 200-350 lbs/in rear) you need way less rear bar diameters. I have an 18mm on now with high rate springs. Believe it or not it launched hard at the drag strip too.
IF you go coilovers and much higher spring rats (350-550 front, 200-350 lbs/in rear) you need way less rear bar diameters. I have an 18mm on now with high rate springs. Believe it or not it launched hard at the drag strip too.
I have been looking at these from Steeda.
http://www.steeda.com/steeda-competition-mustang-swaybar-kit-555-1080/
http://www.steeda.com/steeda-competition-mustang-swaybar-kit-555-1080/
I like that kit because its adjustable, get it!
In the interest of being thorough, I went and got out my micrometer and calibrated it. I then mic'd the rear bar in three places. It would appear that they were lacking in quality control specs. I was lying on the ground so I couldn't get a picture of the third measurement, but it was 24.87. The other two are as follows;
Last edited:
Users who are viewing this thread
