Rear Swaybar/Brace

[laborsmith]

I remember seeing pictures/discussion of a DDMWorks product that would function as a rear swaybar but which he referred to as a rear brace. Since my search has not had satisfactory results, perhaps a member with a better memory than mine can direct me to the thread, or let me know if this is one of my less than accurate memories.

Laborsmith

 

[GeneralZod]

It was the post of a few new items that were in the test phase if I recall. Where it was on the forum... Dunno.

 

[rdss]

Hey there everyone!

We are working on the pages to get these up on the site, but the webmistress is out sick today but will be back in tomorrow :banana:

As for some of the questions I can answer right now.

The charge tubes are multi-layer silicone and will be available in Black, Red and Blue. We will be offering 3 kits for the Sonic, a coolant kit which contains the 4 hoses closest to the turbo. A charge tube kit that replaces all of the charge tubes with silicone tubes. Lastly a combo kit that is both kits combines with a little savings for buying both.

The heat shield looks great, one of my favorite parts so far for the car. It fits over the existing piece and does a great job and keeping things cool. Some may have noticed that the piece on there is aluminum, but the production piece will be the same stainless steel that we use for the intake heat shield. There are 2 parts to make that heat shield, the first part mounts to the cylinder head, then the second part mounts to that and the stock mount for the stock heat shield. I have to admit, getting to the lower mount is kinda a pain, but you only have to do it once We could have made a single piece heatshield, but really wanted it to look cool and keep things cool, so we did the 2 piece which allowed us to follow the contours of the valve cover.

The rear brace works great! We have been testing similar braces on other torsion beam cars now for awhile and they are very effective. Yes it does require drilling 2 holes (took not even 5 minutes to do), but it is one of the best ways to stiffen up the torsion beam in the back and increase roll stiffness. I will post some pictures up of how we are doing it and the pieces that are involved to make sure it fits snuggly up in there, but it works very well. Also, this is a much less expensive way up beefing up the rear torsion beam, which means it will cost less to produce and we can sell it for less then doing a full sway bar with mounts, etc.

Lastly the bypass block off plate is something that the credit goes to Eric for. He is running an aftermarket blow off valve and needs something to block off where the stock bypass valve is located. We are going into production with these and it will be a great way to start having external blow off valves on the car, which will work better than even the forge setups.

I will get some more details up tomorrow when the pages go up.

Have a great night!
Dave

http://www.sonicownersforum.com/forum/116370-post76.html

Here's a post with a pic of a similar one on a Mazda.
http://www.sonicownersforum.com/forum/117060-post107.html

More on the bar
http://www.sonicownersforum.com/forum/118221-post113.html

 

[laborsmith]

Thanks rdss for the find. I almost went through that thread but did not convinced as I was the topic had its own thread.

Now may be a good time to ask for an update. So Dave, is there an update?


Laborsmith

 

[rdss]

No problem, I was looking forward to it's release as well. I figured it was either in the big brake or lil tester thread since I remembered it wasn't in it's own thread. Now it has one and we just have to wait for Dave to fill us in.

 

[Dave@ddmworks]

The rear braces are just getting back from production and should be in our hands in a couple days. They sent me some pictures of the finished products -

I love the brace on my car right now, the production ones are even nicer and looking forward to getting one on my car.

 

[sonic24740]

the rear braces are just getting back from production and should be in our hands in a couple days. They sent me some pictures of the finished products -

i love the brace on my car right now, the production ones are even nicer and looking forward to getting one on my car.

sweet...

 

[JohnT]

The obligatory "take my money"

 

[Ltguy]

Thank god!!! I had a hardcore bar on my Balt and it tightened everything up so much. Price? Or idea of price? I want to order one the day these are released

 

[Joyride]

Okay, what exactly would the rear sway do for my car?

 

[Ltguy]

Okay, what exactly would the rear sway do for my car?

FWD cars tend to understeer, a larger rear sway bar or rear bracing helps plane out the front and the entire car in general causing less understeer making it easier to corner quicker without body roll.

This combine with lowering a cars center of gravity will greatly increase the smile on your face when racing or spirited driving through turns

 

[cndctrdj]

Okay, what exactly would the rear sway do for my car?

Make it turn in faster

 

[cndctrdj]

FWD cars tend to understeer, a larger rear sway bar or rear bracing helps plane out the front and the entire car in general causing less understeer making it easier to corner quicker without body roll.

This combine with lowering a cars center of gravity will greatly increase the smile on your face when racing or spirited driving through turns

Fixed

 

[Ltguy]

Fixed

Thanks lol I always Eff those two up and interchange them haha

 

[Ltguy]

Group buy kickoff?!?!

 

[Joyride]

Thanks for the knowledge...if it planes out the ride in the front, or the whole car for that matter, wouldn't that make going over uneven bumps or pulling out of driveways a bit more tricky? I have my car lowered and it seems under normal driving conditions the addition of a sway bar like this would make conditions tougher.

 

[sonic24740]

Can't wait for this to be done..

 

[Ltguy]

Thanks for the knowledge...if it planes out the ride in the front, or the whole car for that matter, wouldn't that make going over uneven bumps or pulling out of driveways a bit more tricky? I have my car lowered and it seems under normal driving conditions the addition of a sway bar like this would make conditions tougher.

I think that would depend on your driving style and location. In my past 2 cars, both Cobalt SS's I had a 1.25 inch rear sway bar. On stock springs it liked to push the front end til it broke loose, partially because with the body and tire roll along with the spring rate it wasn't forcing the power to the ground and allowing lift under accel. With the addition of the bar, it kept both tires planted firmly and would turn smoothly unless you were going excessively fast. When I added Pedders springs, the car acted very similar to stock but lowered the center of gravity and you could tell there was a lot more suspension travel as they had a bit softer spring rate than a stock FE5/TC Spring. I then went to YYZ's which are a Progressive rate spring and the harder you turned, the more the car stuck. No bar with YYZ's felt strange... Like the car was tight and loose at the same time. However when on the YYZ's with sway bar installed I found myself three wheeling into steep area's around the city and driveways.

I think a lot of it is trial and error to find what you like. You just have to be willing to spend the coin and put in the work, then test and retest until you yourself are happy. Lower looks better but when it comes to racing, you need some suspension travel. I have a feeling this bar, with RS springs and 18's on my LT will be just the ticket

Maybe someone can chime in with something a little more technical as an answer for you. I just know what I have liked based on my experience.

 

[Ltguy]

I will add that the bar was a blessing and a curse during winter driving lol stiffing that rear up made it like to slide if you were not careful. Sometimes fun ... Sometimes unintentional and not fun lol

 

[Joyride]

It sounds like I may be better off leaving the car the way it is since I have no intention of racing other than when im late for work. But with that said I thought the car already came with a sway bar of some kind. Is that true?