[DeTomaso] looking for 7/8" rear bar/skid pad day

[mikeldrew at aol.com]

Julian wrote:

Great idea on the practical testing; If we could get a vendor involved 
on site
with group pricing all the better.

>>>It's been many years (1992 or so) but Larry Stock worked with PCNC 
to do just such a test, with swaybars of various sizes kindly loaned by 
Dennis Quella (before Larry was really established in business as a 
vendor in his own right).  He had a neat laterel G-meter which enabled 
us to get hard data on how the car responded.

Surprisingly, the first iteration (merely switching to a 7/8 inch rear 
bar) resulted in the largest gain; subsequent increases in bar sizes, 
both front and rear, resulted in continued degredation in cornering 
performance.  Jack and I then wrote a comprehensive article summarizing 
our findings.  The speculation was that the chassis flexing was a 
limiting factor, and when the swaybars became too stiff, the chassis 
started bending like an undamped spring.

What would be fascinating to do would be to conduct these tests again 
today, both with and without the chassis stiffening kits.

The car in question was a stock-bodied L-model equipped with 8 and 
10-inch wheels and then-current Pirelli tires.

Also FWIW, my lowly VW Scirocco totally SPANKED the Panteras in 
cornering prowess--thanks in part to the fundamentally excellent 
chassis, but due more to the fitment of  Yokohama DOT-legal racing 
rubber rather than street tires.

Anyway, these sorts of tests can be conducted easily enough in a big 
parking lot--no need to spend the bucks to rent a skidpad.  And now 
it's easy to instrument a car with an I-phone!

Mike