Front and Rear Sway Bar?

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my68barracuda

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Paging through an old Mopar Performance Parts Chassis book, found a statement were the writer was adamant about running a Front and Rear sway bar, or not using a sway bar at all. Is this still current thinking for best handling?

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Guess Mopar make a lot of dangerous cars with just front sway bars for years. I say total BS.
 
Seems like many newer cars and trucks come with front and rear bars. Maybe technology has changed (or maybe the roads have changed)????????
 
I wouldn’t say it was necessary. I did put front and rear on my ‘73 Swinger and it’s now a life-size slot car in the twisties. Lots of fun to drive.
 
Theres millions of cars and trucks manufactured with just a front sway bar. And the vast majority of people just putt putt around with their vehicles. People are not autocross or road racing them to get into any situations where the lack of rear sway bar will affect their vehicle.
 
I've seen them from the factory with no bars, front only rear only and both front and rear.
 
My 69 RR, 72 Dart, 72 Satellite, 78 D100, 97 Dakota 2wd amount others all have just a front sway bar from the factory, no rear bar.
Never seen a car with just a factory rear bar.
 
I've read that Mopars were often sprung too soft up front and too stiff in the back. To remedy this, a front sway bar adds balance but if one adds a rear bar to the car, it moves from an even handling car to one that over-steers and wants to spin.
The Chassis book is not for daily driver cars to haul groceries, go to the Post Office, Dr appts, etc. The book was for street-strip and road race tracks.
 
I still remember the difference when I put a factory front bar on each of my Darts - like night and day (in a good way).
 
My 69 RR, 72 Dart, 72 Satellite, 78 D100, 97 Dakota 2wd amount others all have just a front sway bar from the factory, no rear bar.
Never seen a car with just a factory rear bar.

I HAD a 78 Malibu wagon with just a rear bar....and no sign of ever having a front one. It's not the only one I've ever seen either. Also seen a few trucks with rear bar only.
 
I still remember the difference when I put a factory front bar on each of my Darts - like night and day (in a good way).

I just put an 1 1/8" bar on Vixen in the front. Although it only has 13s on it, I can tell a huge difference. It's easy to see how these little cars spanked *** in the 1960 NASCAR compact car races. I can only imagine how it will handle when I get the rear bar on it and upgrade to 14s. But I'm just putting them on for a little better drivability, not to be a road race queen.
 
Paging through an old Mopar Performance Parts Chassis book, found a statement were the writer was adamant about running a Front and Rear sway bar, or not using a sway bar at all. Is this still current thinking for best handling?

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That information is wrong. It was wrong when written and it is still wrong today. The real answer is "it depends". A more complete answer is that it depends on a bunch of things including weight distribution, tire size, track width, spring rates, etc.
 
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