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1) Of course before taking on any Job on a German car you must first prepare properly. You'll need your energy.
2) Jack up the car safely:
3) Oops that's better:
4) Measure twice cut once: Hey its actually 22mm!!
5) Check if Bushings actually fit on bar: YES!
6) Compare to other sway bars. Looks like stock 18mm bar mounting hole has same lever distance as the middle hole on the 19mm & 22mm Bar.
If the 19mm and 22mm bars are mounted in the middle hole then the 19mm bar is 24% stiffer and the 22mm bar is 223% stiffer than the stock 18mm bar .
Formula used for stiffness is (New Dia/Old Dia)^4.
7) Screw calculations and go for IT!: Mount 22mm bar in stiffest location, closest hole.
8) Preform favorite canyon run, sans speeding ticket, and evaluate performance gain/loss
9) Results:
Was very surprised to find that there was only a slight difference in handling. Car seems somewhat insensitive to rear swaybar changes. Car did have more neutral steer in low to med speed 180 turns. No high speed testing was done. Exit oversteer was only slightly increased but it could have been that I was being a little bit more tentative on throttle application as I wasn't sure what to expect from such a large increase in swaybar spring rate. Anyway this bar is definitely not overkill if you have the 26.8mm front bar as I do. However after this test I would think that the 30mm M030 front bar would be too much for any 944 with the stock staggered tires setup.
Mike G.
Last edited by Mike Goebel; 03-13-2021 at 05:59 PM.
Perhaps the reason the adjustments don't seem to make much difference is because you still have the stock rubber end links? I wonder how it would perform with aftermarket heim joint links?
I definitely felt a difference swapping from 16 to 18mm Porsche bars, the front/rear balance at the limit was better. If your front bar stiffness hasn't been increased by a similar amount, I'd anticipate oversteer.
Went out for round 2 this morning. I still Don't think there is a huge difference between the 2 sway bars 19mm vs 22mm. The 22 is better for corner entry and mid corner plus in a tight situation the rear can be better throttle steered. So all in all I'd say its a great swaybar. I'm running it at the stiffest and you could run it at one of the less stiff locations if you like. However as Carrol Smith once said, Why would you want to put a stress riser in your swaybar. I completely agree. Again these are all 2nd gear corners with a redline exit RPM. Wish I had another 1000 RPM in 2nd that would be ideal.
Suspension:
M030 Stock with new rear shocks.
26.8mm Front Sway Bar
22mm L/R rear bar stiffest setting.
Bridgestone RE11 225/245 about 5 years old. Still pretty damn sticky.
Things to do still.
Need to get front struts rebuilt.
Might try slightly stiffer Torsion bars.
Driver:
The incredible Mike G.
Faster than The Stig!!!
Last edited by Mike Goebel; 03-14-2021 at 02:08 PM.
So, all pretty much standard suspension apart from the 22mm rear bar on the stiffest setting, And you don't think there's much difference?
Yeah definitely not as dramatic a change as I would’ve expected. But all things being equal I would opt for the 22 mm rear bar with my suspension set up. It is slightly better and it’s about the same price as the 19 mm rear bar. I think the real key to balancing these cars is to run a square tire set up. If I can scrounge together enough cash to get some club sport 9 inch rear‘s to try on the front I probably will.
I run 8" and 10" widths, and my car on KW's and Michelin PS2's still oversteers first, past it's grip limits. There does seem to be a mentality that if some is good, more is better. Maybe for a track prepped car, is that where your car is going to live? If not, all 9" front wheels will probably do is make the steering heavier.
Maybe for a track prepped car, is that where your car is going to live? If not, all 9" front wheels will probably do is make the steering heavier.
Nope street only. More tire always = more grip. Plus that 9 square setup has proven to work great for many people. I do think it won’t be great for around town and parking lot steering but 245 on all fours isn’t really all that wide. I’d consider 8 in the front but what tire is there in a 16. If I do purchase new tires it will be those Yokohama somethings. If I trusted my engine not to fail on track I’d do a Big Willow day or maybe even a streets day to track test.
03-13-2021, 02:41 PM
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