Thread: No front sway bar?

Figured I'd post this in the RR forum as I'd like to hear from those that actually run on track. I have a B14, came across a B13 front Whiteline sway bar, and remember reading that B13 and B14 bars are interchangeable. Decided to do some more research on the interweb, and find out that some don't run a front bar at all. Anyone here eliminate the bar? How are the results? What does the rest of your suspension setup look like? Curious to know, thanks.

I have no experience autocrossing Yet. But from what I've read people tend to upgrade the rear and either leave the front alone or I've read using the 1.6 swaybar aswell if I remember correctly. Sorry I have no real world experience yet, Lol. Dave

Is this for track or street?

Strictly track, LeMons car.

Okay.

When we bought our former 200sx SE-R (track rat) it had no front sway bar and a whiteline rear sway bar. The front tires wore out very unevenly and prematurely (specifically the inside front right and outside front left) so we decided to put the stock front sway bar back on and suddenly tire wear was not as extreme on the front right passenger side (a very big obvious difference) so we left the sway bar on and decided it was best to run a front sway bar.

On our p10 g20, we run stock front and rear sway bars (and wouldn't dream of removing the front sway bar after the horrible tire wear experience with the 200sx)

It is all relative.

If you remove the bar, the car will handle better to some degree. Removing the bar allows the left and right LCA to move more independently from each other. This helps optimize tire contact patch when one side of the car needs more tire, it can grab a small bit more than compared to being limited by movement with the sway bar attached.

But, as mentioned before, tire wear will be all over the place since the wheel and tire can travel more freely. That and braking and acceleration will be negatively affected since the two tires will not be moving in quite the same way as when connected with a sway bar. Since you are on a track, that can be easily taken into account with stiffer suspension parts. Bushings, springs, dampers, etc...

The G20 is totally different then the B13/B14/B15 front suspension so removing the front sway bar on that chassis is a different story. The suspension does not allow the wheel to move all over the place like a strut-based suspension can promote.

Lastly, there are three trims in the US region for the B14 chassis. Base model, SE model, and the SE-R model. The base model does not offer a front sway bar. The SE and the SE-R models do offer the front sway bar as standard. I owned a B14 base model with the GA16DE and I strongly believe that the base model B14 handled better than my B14 SE-R for the simple reason that there was no sway bar. The B14 SE-R defintely felt a HELL of a lot stronger of a car and the wheel was more responsive than the base model. The car made no power comparatively so I did not have to worry about things the 2.0 L engine introduced.

With a front-engine, front-drive car, the rear end is stiffened to help eliminate understeer / promote oversteer.

I guess I'll add that we saw no difference in lap times adding the sway bar back (but got longer life out of the not-all-that-cheap hoosier tires)!

Thank you guys for the replies. I'm going to stick with the OEM front sway. We already have Tein SS coilover setup coming, and we'll add a rear strut bar as well. Now for the hard part, finding a rear sway. Do you guys know if there's anyone on the east coast who's still bends rear beams? I know the B15 and Maximas have the same issues as us, there's got to be someone.

I know my former b14 came from West Virginia and had the beam bent (was done by a guy named Steve Foltz who flew in to do it so I'm not sure if anyone local to you does it).

Yes, I know about Steve and I know he's flown in a few times from Cali for the bending events. But I think I remember reading that there was someone on the east coast some where that did it as well.