i run a metric car, in super stock, and right now im completely redoing my whole car. ive already been running camaro/nova spinles and upper a-arms, and been doing the stiffer springs thing...... i was thinking about running a sway bar and softening the springs with an adjustable link on the left side, ive read about it several times, but never see a whole lot about it, anybody out there run a sway bar? the track i run is medium banked, 3/8 mile dirt, just curious and would like to hear if anyone has tried it and how they liked it .    thanx  

We used to run a f-body / Camaro on dirt at a similar situation type track.  We tried a sway bar, but used it as more of a tuning tool.  What we did was remove the link tube but used the rest of the pieces for the driver side (all pieces was used for the passenger side).  Every 1" was worth 1 % on cross weight...needless to say, the car owner only used it to only set us to say 50-51% when attempting this, and the driver always complained that it was too tight.  We would try it about once a year, then end up removing it because it was too "tight" and it weighs so much. The track we ran in IL pretty much was wet for qualifying but within about 4 races was in process of going dry slick just about every week since forever.  We did try another track last year that was alot more banked, but never had a chance to try the sway bar out since the girl who runs the track figured out how to mess with us before we went out for the feature and dump water on the track and the car always needed to be looser and not tighter, as well as she would dump water on the track before the first race even though it was a good fresh pack...and we were in the first or second race.

So, not sure if my feed back is worth it or not since we used it as tuning and never otherwise used.  Do be aware that our chassis is 2x3 framed from the sub frame back and should be as good as your g-body other than leaf springs...but I have a question in return.  We are taking the same Super Stock Camaro and putting it on a high banked asphalt in a class known as "Grand National" or "American Sportsman" (includes Modified type metric chassis running in the same class).  Already have been told that 55-58% is needed on left and sway bar is going to be used, any one out there that runs a Camaro as a "full" frame have any tips running a dirt car on asphalt for the year?  Things like alignment, cross, front / rear and any other tips are appreciated.  Unfortunately no one wanted to buy our chassis so we could get a metric chassis, but the race director has approved us to run on the 1/4 mi. asphalt circle after looking at our car.  

One of the primary reasons why sway bars don't work on dirt is because of the uneven surface. The bar transfers the bumps from side to side. Besides, we are always trying to get the front to turn better on dirt and the sway bar will tighten the car every time. If the track were super smooth and tight, then maybe you could develop setups where the Sway bar would be OK... but when does that happen.

As for running on asphalt metalman630, you will definitely need to run a sway bar, balance your setup with a stiffer RR spring and run stiffer front springs than you are used to on dirt. Balance means that the left side tire temperatures are nearly the same. Watch those temps and tune the setup accordingly. Change the springs and panhard bar (???) height to tune the dynamic balance and change the cross weight percent to tune the handling balance.  

I'm going to try running them on dirt this year in pure stock.  First race this sunday. I'll post how it goes.  

RAIN OUT!  

My local track had 2 nights of racing scheduled for this weekend and the rain got us again!!!  Beginning to think I'll never get to try out my sway bar!! lol
Has anyone tried one on dirt this year yet?   Thanks, Steve  

Finally got to race last saturday.  Weather has post poned things a few weeks, but the sway bar did fine!  I finished 2nd place and protested the 1st place car, and he was wrong.  So I got the win!  Thanks, Steve