I wish to add sway bars to my 1971 Targa so as to upgrade the car's handling for occasional track events. I have been told that because of the car's chassis design (flex) that the addition of sway bars will have no positive effect unless I stiffen the car with a six-point roll cage. This eems a little extreme to me since the car is driven daily by my wife and will only see Drivers' Ed events on the track. Does anyone have experience with sway bars on an older Targa? Will camber braces have a positive effect? Thanks for any help!

 

We use a stock 15mm front sway bar & none in back on our ’71 Targa. During AutoX the inside front tire has been known to pickup, but our yet to be installed 26mm turbo torsion bars should fix that. This is the setup I would go w/for a daily driver w/occasional track use. These parts are reasonably cheap at swap meets. The Targa will flex but it shouldn’t keep you from having fun. Remember a through the body sway bar is more effective than others, so you don’t need to go real big & a stock rear sway bar will require welded in mounts. New shocks & bushing will have a positive effect on the track & street use as well.

 

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Jeff, I own a targa after driving several coupes and I truly believe the flex issue is overblown. There are two ways the car will flex one is longitudeinally and the other is in a u-like fashion as a result of having no roof. Porsche helped on the former by using a steel hoop to link the two sides. You can additionally help this along by stiffening the shock towers (i.e. camber truss) and minimizing the u flex through the installation of braces like Pelican sells (which I have installed and felt added to the overall stability. Owners of coupes generally think their cars are stiffer then they really are, the only difference is some thin steel along the top which helps to tie the entire car together. If you can tie the stress points, i.e. suspension points, you should be able to greatly reduce the flex during driving. Lastly, while a six-point helps, it would help a coupe just as much, so evaluate your goals and take the necessary steps to reach your target.

Good luck.