Is it an option to simply remove the rear swaybar instead of upgrading the fronts? Should that quell some of the oversteer with bigger front tires?

Sri

 

It will certainly move the bias towards understeer. If you have a stock suspension you may find the overall body roll to be too much. If you have stiffer springs you might be pleasantly suprised.

Either way its worth a try for a couple days to see the difference in handling that it makes.

 

I wouldn't do that with stock suspension.

 

My susp is stock and I ran w/o a rear bar with Mugen front at the 'Streets' a few times. The car understeered like a pig but I was able to put more power down. It's just a band aid and not a solution.

 

Assuming you were running R-compounds, didn't you find the roll was too much to deal with? DId you run back to back sessions to see if it was really faster like that? I fully buy into that for cars running stiffer springs but stock, I dunno.

 

I ran half day with the bar bolted and the remaining afternoon unbolted. I was able to beat the fore mentioned set-up time by 2 secs. The car felt extremely unbalanced with severe rear bias but I was able to put the pedal down harder and earlier. I guess that out weighed the bad. I was using r-comps and putting more wear to the front than rear tire. Due to the particular track config of SOW were there are quick successive transition at low speeds, body roll can be of an advantage with limited grip. Also, 2nd is my popular gear of choice for that track and accelerating in that gear will require more of the rear tire's traction circle. Like I said it's just a band aid and there are better fix to the problem. On a last note, I don't think this set-up will be of any good on a med or high speed track. Just the Streets

 

I have to agree with Ray. With the rear bar out, stock suspension, R-compound tires in the stock size (205 up front, 245 out back) the car really did understeer on a few turns, but did increase my times over all. Ray ran a 1:30 totally stock without the rear bar, and completely wasted Victoracers. That's not to bad for the streets with the set up he was running. The body roll was a bit much, but other than the saver understeer through the very sharp turns, the car was very well balanced. A lot of this depends on driving style as well. With the bar out, I was really pushing the car hard. Much harder than if the bar was in. It seems easier to go faster in a car that understeers, but ultimately, this isn't the ideal set up.

 

Ray, 1:30 at Streets with stock suspension .
Now I feel slow.

 

I call BS on that number! No way.

 

Show me AMB numbers. That sounds like an optimistic stopwatch time. Richard ran 29.9 with the full track + bowl CW. I ran 33.8 with stock suspension, 225/245 tires and front bar; Raymund would have to be the second coming of Senna for that to happen.