{"id":23989,"date":"2019-08-12T04:05:39","date_gmt":"2019-08-12T11:05:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/?p=23989"},"modified":"2020-09-26T07:36:50","modified_gmt":"2020-09-26T14:36:50","slug":"q-how-can-i-use-the-anti-roll-bar-to-reduce-understeer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/q-how-can-i-use-the-anti-roll-bar-to-reduce-understeer\/","title":{"rendered":"Q: How can I use the anti-roll bar to reduce understeer?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Q<\/strong>: \u201cMy question is what effect does stiffening the front sway bar have on a front wheel drive car. My Mini Cooper is a track-only, highly-modified over-sized go-kart and I have the ability to stiffen the aftermarket front bar, however I am curious as to what effect it will on handling. If it will make it understeer more I don\u2019t need that. If, in theory, it will tend to make it rotate better, that would be a good thing. There is not a lot out there on how to make your FWD (front-wheel-drive) work better so I thought I would ask you.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

A<\/strong>: I have a Mini, too, although not modified like yours. But still a quick, fun car!<\/p>\n

Typically, going stiffer on the front bar will increase the likelihood to understeer. And that would be the case in a FWD, RWD, or AWD car. The simple way of thinking about this is that stiffer bar will result in more load transfer to the outside tire in a corner, and take more load off the inside tire. The more load transfer, the less overall grip that axle will have. So a stiffer bar on the front – in relation to the rear – will lead to more understeer; a stiffer bar on the rear will lead towards more oversteer. From your email it seems you\u2019re looking for less understeer and more rotation as you turn into a corner. If that\u2019s what you\u2019re looking for, softening the front bar should help. If you can\u2019t soften it any more, can you stiffen the rear bar?<\/p>\n

If you can\u2019t make any more changes with the bars, you would then look towards the springs (softer front springs; stiffer rear springs), and\/or shock adjustments (same direction).<\/p>\n

Of course, there are always exceptions to the rules! There are times when understeer is caused by too much roll, in which case a stiffer front bar setting could help. But this is the exception to the rule, and is less likely than the typical advice I gave you above. The only way of knowing for sure is to experiment \u2013 try stiffening the bar and see how it handles.<\/p>\n

For more advice on how to tune your car’s handling, download my free How to Tune Your Car’s Handling<\/em><\/strong><\/a> eBook here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Q: \u201cMy question is what effect does stiffening the front sway bar have on a front wheel drive car. My Mini Cooper is a track-only, highly-modified over-sized go-kart and I have the ability to stiffen the aftermarket front bar, however I am curious as to what effect it will on handling. If it will make it understeer more I don\u2019t need that. If, in theory, it will tend to make it rotate better, that would be a good thing. There is not a lot out there on how to make your FWD (front-wheel-drive) work better so I thought I would ask you.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ask-ross"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23989"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23989\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32862,"href":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23989\/revisions\/32862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}