Has anyone tried to run without both F and R sway bars? We have had good success with our Viper on 1300lb spring rates with no sway bars. The Viper is a quirky chassis to tune and doesn't relate well to an S2k platform but we noticed that the Viper is very stable upon curbing usage due to the fact that the L and R sides are independent of one another vs both sides being affected via sway bar connection.

I'm on 900lb spring rates with stock sways and I use curbing quite religiously and noticed that I'm having to make unnecessary corrections upon hitting curbing.

My thinking is that with the high spring rates that I'm running, there may not be any true support from a sway bar to help with roll stiffness.

The downside of high rates is that you r thrown everywhere on a bumpy track where softer rates plus stiffer bars will be more effective on that kind of surface.

But at the same time, the way the Viper runs over curbing and still remains very stable with no bars has me toying with disconnecting my sway bars.

Thoughts?

 

I can only tell you that my car, even with stock suspension, hates curbing with my 800 lb front & 500 lb rear swaybar. Really unsettles the car.

 

I would assume so. Your running high spring rates with no damping. Swaybars are still springs, at least that's my understanding.

 

Wouldn't this depend on if you're hitting the curbing while loaded under cornering or in a straight line?

 

Try disconnecting both swaybars and see how it feels.

I'd be curious to run the numbers to see what the wheel rates would be with and without the swaybars. I've only ever done wheel rate calculations based on spring, and never really factored in swaybar rates.

 

Im really hoping some suspension guru is going to chime in on the theory behind spring rate to swaybar rate ratios.

 

With the 900lb rates, the car is quite compliant on bumpy tracks. The only time it gets hairy is when I'm running up on curbing. I'm on Challenge Comp+ shocks which can dampen the rates but my thinking is that the stock sways are not aiding as they should as much due to the high spring rates.
In my opinion, "4 wheel independent wishbone suspension" isn't all that independent with sway bars.
I don't have time to tinker and test like I should, NASA season opener is right around the corner and I would like to keep the same setup throughout 2014.
Road Atlanta T3 for example, you basically have to cut/hop that curbing to be fast in that sector. There are plenty more but that one comes to mind.

 

This is on a street tire? And yes I agree at 900 lb springs the stock bars are not adding as much due to relative effectiveness.

 

I run RS3s for practice and Hoosier A6s for time trial.

 

Damping is WAY more important than spring and sway bar rates going over bumps and curbing. Last event with Ohlins DFV on my RX-7 I was astounded at how I could run the rightside tires over the ~3" apex curbing at 11b and New Hampshire Motor Speedway at full throttle in 3rd gear, no problemo! I later disconnected the rear bar for more rear grip in general and didn't notice any change in behavior over that curbing.

Dampers with excess high-speed damping will upset the car over curbing/bumps/transitions whatever the spring and sway bar rates.

Running no sways doesn't seem like that great an idea to me, unless your track width is the same as your wheelbase! No sways will generally mean you're relatively stiffer under max braking and relatively softer under max cornering.