New Saner-style Swaybar - Group Buy

assuming the same size tires front and rear, the 308 has a fairly balanced, (Neutral) handling balance. That is, trailing throttle incduces a bit of oversteer and 3/4 throttle causes a bit of understeer - a good balance. that was my experience with a totally stock 308.

I beefed the suspension to about twice the stock spring rate and installed saner's bars but because i had oversized the rear tires, i need more bar than the 25/22 saner set up could provide, so i now have 22/22 and the car is back to a good neutral balance.

If you size the bars to get rid of al understeer, you will probably have a car that is seriously prone to oversteer unless you really have the right foot in it - which doesn't give you a lot of leeway.

Rember, the strength of the bar goes up by the 4th power of diameter - a little bit goes a long ways

chris

 

hi Matt, count me in for a set. let me know what further action i should take, or just wait on your status....

thanks
john

 

Chris, did you change your front bar from 25mm to 22mm?

 

Hi Mike,

If I am not mistaken my old 25 mm front bar resides on your red beauty.

My spring selection 400 ft and 350 rear was just a bit too much front biased and so i installed a smaller front bar to get back into the more neutral range.

This coupled with a 255/30 - 18 rear tire also moved me to a slightly smaller front bar.

Balance is where it is at.

;-)
chris

 

I just spoke with Ernie and provided my contact information. Count me in for a set.

--Woody

 

i'll take a set too,
so that's 8

 

i just spoke with john at ADDCO. he says there are only 3 folks on his list so far. myself, Matt and someone else. so, if you are serious about the group buy, please call john with your information. 800 338 7015.

 

+1 !! You can poke fun at a lot of Ferrari plastic bits, but a group of very well trained Mechanical Engineers (imagine the competition to get a job at Ferrari), Race Drivers, the resources of the Maranello facility and money PLUS the test track at Fiorano - and- take into account this company team doing this as fulltime 9 - 5 + effort. Unless you've got some specific racing agenda, improving what's there a pretty tall task.

 

"(Who knows, maybe he'll start producing before we hit 10!)"

yeah, when i spoke with him yesterday, he initially thought the group buy was for 5 folks - haha.

 

To be honest, some of the comments from other members suggesting this may not be a good move (e.g. comments to the effect that it might undermine the neutral handling balance, etc.) have made me a little nervous about jumping on this. If others buy and install these and have great results, I'd jump back in. But I don't want to spend $400+ on something that I might wind up disliking--especially when there are so many other things on the car asking for money as it is.

With sincere apologies, please consider me out for now.

 

i see this opportunity to try somthing new with the suspension on my car. anything i can do on my 308 that is less than $500 bucks is worth a try in my book. if it doesnt work out, i can revert back and sell components on ebay, its not like it costs 5 grand to do this. the price is real reasonable and i want to compliment the 16 inch wheels i put on the car. I am more curious about this upgrade than anything.
my buddy put a bigger sway bar in his subi WRX STI, i drove the car before and after - what a difference!!!! no sacrifice in ride comfort whatsoever. the car is so neutral in the corners, i was surprised. the only downside to this is you need to be diligent about rotating tires.
i am not trying to sway anyone (no punk intended - lol) into buying these, i am only justifying my decision to do this based on price, and satisfying my curiosity!
plus, my sway bars are 35 years old, and the finish on my bars is destroyed - which downgrades the performance on these bars considerably. i did a lot of reaearch on this, and these old sway bars on our 308's are not like they were when new (springy steel does wear out over time)!!! just the drop links and poly mounting hardware is worth it alone.

 

Mark, I understand your concern specially in today's economy. But let me tell you this; I don't have Saner sway bars instead, I have a custom made sway bars front and rear made for my 308, same exact size as these group are buying, 25mm front and 22mm rear. All I can say about my car now is that it handles like 100% better, it's almost like a night and day difference. I tested it on a long winding and twistie road and I can definitely go a lot faster on the turns of course having a good set of tires helps too. The car is much level now during cornering and just over all handle very very well not to mention I'm still using the stock Koni shocks and stock springs. I guess you're right, just wait and see how these group will comment on the Saner bars after they tested it.

 

This is really helpful. If I am #10 and the buy won't go ahead without me, I will buy. If there are ten without me, I'll wait and see.

 

With regard to balance, I understand everyone's concerns. Generally, too much front bar will make a car understeer, where too much in the rear will make it oversteer. I made my decision to get these bars because the sizes are pretty much what others have used successfully in the past, PLUS the fact that the bars will have 3-hole adjustments at each end. With the adjustments, there are essentially 9 possible settings to balance the front vs. rear roll stiffness. Based on others success with this size bars, I think I should be able to balance understeer/oversteer with the adjustments provided.

--Woody

 

Bigger bars will let you corner faster and with greater controll, particularly in the transitions.

Note the relatively flat stance.

Note also, that i am right behind a 12 cyl

Viva Enzo
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I've done poly A-arm bushings, adjustable shocks with heavier springs, lowered ride height, wider tires, and bigger (actual Saner) anti-sway bars. Since I did these all one project at a time, I can definitely say without question that the bigger anti-sway bars had the most dramatic effect on being able to take corners flatter and faster than any of the other upgrades.

 

I will upgrade to these bars if my low oil pressure reading is due to a faulty sending unit. I will know this weekend.

Doug

 

If these will fit a 328, what about my 3.2 Mondial?