white 944 turbo

Is there any advantage in going from the standard 1989 turbo sway bars which I think are 26.5mm in front and 18mm rear to the MO30 that are 30mm front and 19mm in the rear. Anyone have any experience with this?

Redshift

your 89 turbo should already have the M030 sway bars. if your handling feels sloppy, you may want to inspect the bushings and replace as necessary. My car has gone through 2 sets already.

GaryK

Sometime in '88/'89, the rear swaybar size, even on the M030, was dropped to 16mm, which is what my '89 had. I upgraded to the 30/19mm bars you mention, which are actually 968 M030. There was a noticeable decrease in body roll, and the rear bar is 3-way adjustable.

Danno

"Is there any advantage in going from the standard 1989 turbo sway bars which I think are 26.5mm in front and 18mm rear to the MO30 that are 30mm front and 19mm in the rear."

It really depends upon what you want to get out of your car and your intended usage.

Here's a picture of a stock TurboS with 26.8/18mm swaybars entering turn-3 at Willow Springs:



As mentioned in the June-1988 C&D road-test of the TurboS, they used scraping sound of the rocker-panels on the ground as a gauge of how close they were to the cornering-limit! I'd hate to see what a non-S Turbo looks like...

Going up to the 968 M030 30/19mm 3-way adjustable bar helps somewhat. Here's my car coming out of turn-5 at Willow Springs:



As you can see, body-roll is better than the 26.8/18mm set-up. However, I didn't like the rough adjustments with the 3 positions available on the rear bar. It would oversteer at the stiffest setting yet understeer at the middle position. The best configuration for me has been the Weltmeister 28.6/22mm combo:



With this configuration set at full-stiff front and medium-stiff in the rear, I've got great balance with zero body-roll. Depending upon the track, I can adjust the rear bar in minute 2-3mm increments for fine-tuning.

However, eliminating body-roll in itself does nothing more than compensate for the compromises inherent in the front McPherson strut design. This causes the outside tire to gain positive camber and tilt along with the body as the suspension compresses. With a more sophisticated double-wishbone, multi-link suspension, the designers can have it dial in more negative camber as the body rolls to keep the outside tire vertical with the ground (or even more negative camber relative to ground).

The last BMW E46 M3 in the photo above ended up winning the Touring-2 group at last year's OTC despite having the most body-roll out of anyone else in the class. But it probably had the best suspention too..

GrantG

Yeah, I really like the infinite adjustability of the Weltmeisters too.

-Grant
88 951S

adrial

edit:

upon rereading my post I see it makes no sense, so ignore.

end edit---

In the first pic of the Turbo S, is that car on R compound tires?

It appears that in the first pic the guy is on the brakes...

Turby

Funny you guys mention the weltmeister rear bar.................both my mechanics swear by it over the cup rear bar.

TonyG

Danno

There's no way you can even start to compare suspension loading pictures of a tight banked, big-time suspension loading turn 3 with that of a off-balance, turn 5. No Dice. "Guru" or not, it's a bad comparision for a before-and-after sway bar comparision.

And yes... the Weltmeisters are much better than the M030 bars.


Sorry... it's just that the comparision was just too misleading.

User 41221

Maybe its a bad comparison, but I still think he will feel a difference going to the 968 M030 bars. As mentioned tho, you might want to check your bushings first, as that alone might make the difference you are looking for, unless you are wanting to go all out with a track set up.

Regards, ...Scott

Russ Murphy

Having completed this swaybar upgrade myself, I can say that the photos Danno posted are accurately indicative of the body roll improvement. It's night and day. See if you can get just the front M030 and the infinitely adjustable Weltmeister for the rear.

Larry Parker

sway bars are only one piece of the puzzle
the spring rate has just as much to do with it.......... I run a stock front bar on my track car and it works great.............also putting on a larger rear bar will induce more inside wheel spin in a car with an open diff.................


Also i would not use pics to show the difference.......in one pic he may be breaking while not in the other.........

Ken

The best combination of sway bars I've heard about is the M030 30mm up front with the Weltmeister Fully adjustable 22mm in the rear. I think this is a great combonation. Anyone have any opinions on this?

Edit: I just noticed you posted about this Russ. <img src="graemlins/c.gif" border="0" alt="[ouch]" /> Do you feel its the best way to go?

Russ Murphy

I have the M030 front and rear. I've noticed similar adjustability issues with the rear as Danno. The ultimate way to go is probably the beefy, extremely adjustable Kolkeln bars.