Back in the day, I installed a rear swaybar on my Typhoon and considered it the best mod I ever did to that truck, so I am not opposed to adding a rear bar. My bigger concern is that with the 4 link in the rear it is very busy back there in terms of mounting a swaybar. Between the 4-Link, gas tank, spare tire, driveshaft and misc brake lines, there's a lot of 'confusion' back there. If I decide to add a rear bar, I'll need to make a concentrated effort to get something that fits well without hitting other components. Not impossible, but not just an order & install affair. I want to get a better setup in the front and resolve that first before I start on the rear.
I placed a few calls today, one to Speedway Engineering, they said they are the manufacturer, and have limited application data available (read NONE). They recommended that I contact a chassis shop because with all the angles, and dimensions they don't really have any idea what I'd need.. Fair enough, they have their market, and it's manufacturing, not spec'ing out rides. Very friendly and positive people to talk to, just not their bag.
I called another chassis shop here in Tennessee and basically got the brush off, not certain but it felt like it was because my truck is too new.
Must be nice to be able to pick and chose what customers you want to work with.
So I finally called Ron Sutton, he was heading back from a show in Vegas and was very accomodating on the phone. Even though he was trailering back a display trailer from his show he took the time out to talk to me and laid out my options. Damn.. I need to start plasma donation or something to support my hobby.
LOL I'll follow up with more details as they get finalized.
In other news, I did another SCCA points event autocross yesterday, overall everything went well (relatively speaking anyhow). While I was doing corner-worker duty the skies opened up and it started to rain, sort of sucks when its only 50* ambient air temp and the wind is blowing. I was hoping for a full on rain as it would level the playing field in my favor significantly.
At this event there was 2 other cars in my class this weekend (that's a first).. A 4th Gen WS6 Trans Am and 5th Gen Camaro. The Trans Am was a purpose built vehicle that was impressive to watch, the driver was very talented. The 5th Gen Camaro was a nice piece as well but leaned a little more towards the street than track/course built ride of the T/A. The Camaro had a nice lumpy cam in it and was rolling on ZL1 wheels. Both cars were running sticky rubber (opposed to my street tires).
Anyhow I had hoped for a full-on rain, SCCA runs in the rain, only stopping for storms involving lightning. With my truck in Auto 4WD and on street tires it would have levelled the playing field exponentially in my favor vs. the RWD race tire guys.. Sadly, this would NOT be the case, by the time it was my turn to run the track was at best, damp. By the 2nd run, I couldnt even tell it had rained. However, on my first run, while it was damp, I was able to pull a giant Petter Solberg style drift around one of the corners. The back end broke loose under braking and began to rotate around pointing the truck into the direction of the corner. I slammed the throttle WOT and the front end just pulled it straight forward and into the corner in a slingshot manner.. Pretty damn cool and by far my highlight of the day..
Sadly the rest of the day didn't end well for me, I need to learn to slow down and stop trying to hammer the F#_%* out of the course. I continually over drove the course.. I'm am attaching my 5th run of the day for your viewing pleasure/laughter. It was set to be the best run of my day until I over-baked the last corner (intended to slow people down, which I didn't), and I clipped the last cone and blasted through the finish gate cones, taking out at least 3-4 of them and causing the two guys behind me to get re-runs as they were setting up the cones I destroyed..
Fortunately I didn't hit any timing equipment.
One thing I did find myself doing was I was 'hugging' the center console in preparation for turns!! I didn't realize that I was doing this before, and I am certain it isn't helping my technique. So I believe I will be working towards a harness of some sort or at the very least, a competition lap belt to help hold my butt in place!!!! In the mean time, in an attempt to compensate, I moved my seat forward about 3-4 clicks to help wedge me in place, at 6'5" tall it's not uncommon for me to get wedged in a car/truck anyhow. This did wonders for my technique and I actually felt better on my last 3 runs.. I can't believe I didn't do this before, I used to back when I autocrossed my BMW back in 2008-2010. I believe a 4 point harness is in my future if I can figure out a way to mount it in place without losing too much recline room on the seat, being 6'5" tall I don't always want to feel 'wedged' in place. I do use the truck for other daily usages. Anyhow, more to come.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sieg
I'm guessing a splined bar setup on that truck with tuning insight would money well spent.
Call Ron Sutton and hopefully you'll get along and end up throwing some money his way.  |
I concur 100%... I called Ron earlier today and I am in the early stages of getting a 3 piece splined bar in place.. Most likely it will be a weld in place 'bar in a tube' setup.. The bad news is, I think I just blew my harness money on a sway bar.. Great, more traction adding stuff to throw me around in the truck and less restraining devices in the truck !! Perfect !!
