If the suspension woes of TRs only came down to sway bars it would be a
great thing. Depending on what anyone has done to the front end, a sway bar
in the back could be good or bad. With the typical roll center differences
of a Triumph there's all kinds of whacky stuff going on. If it feels good,
cool.
On a serious race car you disconnect the rear sway bars when the track is
wet or the traction is limited in some manner. As the track dries, most cars
experience steadily greater under steer and unpredictable traction in the
back--for obvious reasons.
With a TR3 and the bizarre roll center of the front end (about three feet
underground) there's no telling what a rear bar will do.
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-fot@autox.team.net [mailto:owner-fot@autox.team.net] On Behalf
Of Randall Young
Sent: Monday, June 27, 2005 11:23 AM
To: fot@autox.team.net
Subject: RE: GT6 rear sway bar
> John Harkness had one on his TR3A for years. Then one day he took it
> off.
> After racing the car without, I think he may have thrown it away.
Just to be clear, I was only trying to illustrate my point that "it
depends".
I've heard from lots of people that solid-axle TRs do better on the track
w/o a rear bar; they're no doubt right.
However, I drive (well, drove, the TR3A got totaled last year) on the
street, where the only rules are my pocketbook and available time, so
chances are my car is quite a bit different. For example, I doubt my 205/55
street tires are vintage legal (and if I were racing in a class where they
were, I'd be running something else anyway).
My route home from work has two right hand sweepers, posted at 30 mph.
Taking them at 70 mph, I still have plenty of traction margin. 75 is scary
as hell, but not quite at the limit yet. I'll probably never find the
limit, that guardrail looks like it would just love to have me for lunch and
I don't have a roll bar.
But disconnecting the rear bar definitely slows me down, not to mention that
the sudden transition from understeer to oversteer is very unsettling.
Predictable or not, I still don't like it, and the sudden wiggling around as
I correct for it is not good either especially if I'm passing someone on the
inside at the time. I do have the rear bar set pretty soft, though. It's a
thin bar (standard ADDCO), with rubber bushings and almost no compression on
the bushings; while the front bar is substantially thicker and running in
polyurethane. Next step was going to be an even heavier front bar.
And no way was I suggesting that any flavor of IRS was comparable to a beam
axle TR, except that "it depends".
Randall
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