Motorsport Wheel Alignment: Anti-Roll Bars
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Anti-Roll Bars
01.57
| 00:00 | - Anti-roll bars, which are often referred to as sway bars, are used in order to help reduce body roll and keep the car flatter during hard cornering. |
| 00:09 | They achieve this through the use of a torsion bar that runs from one side of the car to the other, which is connected to the suspension near to the hub by means of a linkage. |
| 00:18 | The anti-roll bar is designed so that when one wheel moves into bump travel, this movement is transferred through the anti-roll bar and has the affect of trying to make the other wheel do the same thing. |
| 00:29 | This helps reduce the tendency of the car to roll and by adjusting the stiffness of the front and rear bars independently, these can be used as a powerful tuning tool to help us alter or improve the handling characteristics of the car. |
| 00:42 | By incorporating anti-roll bars it also means that we can achieve less body roll without needing to resort to very stiff spring rates that would compromise the suspension in other ways. |
| 00:53 | Now you may be thinking that if an anti-roll bar helps reduce body roll and this is a good thing, then we should simply fit the biggest anti-roll bars we can find. |
| 01:02 | Unfortunately as with everything to do with a performance car, this is all about compromise. |
| 01:08 | While the anti-roll bar does help reduce body roll, it does this by compromising the ability of the suspension to truely work independently. |
| 01:17 | What I mean by this is that if one wheel rolls over a bump and moves into bump travel, this will also be transmitted into the opposite wheel, thanks to the anti roll bar. |
| 01:27 | In some instances, we can actually see advantages in removing a factory anti roll bar entirely. |
| 01:33 | This is particularly common in some front wheel drive and four wheel drive applications where removing the front anti-roll bar can improve front end compliance and grip, reducing the natural tendency for these cars to understeer. |
| 01:46 | Ultimately the anti-roll bar is just another tuning tool in our arsenal and they need to be considered alongside the rest of the suspension system. |
