Pfadt Sport Sway Bar - First Hand Opinions Requested
 

I'm looking for feedback from people who have installed the Pfadt Sport Sway Bar package. No second hand "my friend heard.." please :)

There have been a lot of thread discussions on "Sway Bar theory," but I haven't seen many results oriented opinions. I've seen all the claims for what these bars will do, etc. Who can stand up and say "Yep, they're just as advertised." Include comments on what they improved or didn't improve for you.

Installation comments and photos would be great too! Thanks for the input.

Reference:
http://www.camaro5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=38364
http://www.camaro5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=37821
http://www.camaro5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=39146
http://www.camaro5.com/forums/showthread.php?p=870285
http://www.camaro5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=37823

Anybody?

Comment I got from Jordan at Pfadt:

My question:

Jordan,

I've read all the great posts about sway bar "theory" and such, and I'm trying to decide if I want to go with your front/rear sway bar setup or just the rear balance bar. I don't plan to lower the car, or mess with springs/etc.

I don't plan to do any roadcourse racing/etc, but I do like to drive pretty aggresive on the road. My goal is to reduce body roll and increase steering response. My big fear is getting into oversteer territory and losing the backend.

I feel I'm a very competent driver, but I'm not looking to "drift" the corners.

His response:

I would suggest our Sport Sway package. We provide balance to the chassis; we haven't gone from understeer to oversteer but rather to neutral. Pfadt Racing is a true suspension engineering company and we develop products that provide function and true performance gains.

I never really tried sliding around turns before I got the sways, so I can't say much for the correcting the understeer story. I can say it turns a lot flatter. It might bring out the shortcomings in your seats.
I also wasn't able to get the old ones out without raising the engine. Install was frustrating, but I was able to handle it in my garage on jackstands (should have put the jackstands up higher though). Nothing is ever as easy as you think it's going to be though.

So was changing the sway bars worth it? Did you gain enough improvements to justify the $ ?

I personal sell the bars, and installed them on a customer car, and have driven the car bard before an after.

The install on the fronts is not too bad, but you will have to snake the sway bar out the passenger side, after unbolting the endlinks and connection points, it does slide right out though.

The Pfadt bar installs in half the time of uninstalling the stock bar, which is always nice, it just slides right in, and then torque to factory specs.

As for before an after... I drove the car at an auto cross, and my oh my the body roll, I couldn't get the car to budge the front end at all, just just laid there dead weight understeering, so i plowed through a few cones. I did get the car to improve the times on stock bars, but not much, because the brakes got a little angry left foot braking.

Now we then installed the pfadt sport bars, unfortunately I did not get to compare it on the same course, but a different one. The biggest difference I noticed was steering input, and damnit the front end of the car felt like it was were it was saposed to be. The roll was lowered, albeit still some due to the height of the car, the rear tires seemed to have a larger friction patch from quick switch back movements, and the front of the car went flat around the corners, and didnt feel miserable to turn in on.

Thats my review, I know I may not be the best (bias) because I have been selling and using pfadt products in the vette market for years, but a good product is just that. These bars make a difference, you can feel the car turn in now!!!

If you have any other questions feel free. I have ONE kit of my initial ten left here I can make you a nice offer on as well if your interested in the bars after you get more feed back

-Regards

Thanks for the input Brandon, and the great IPS customer service too. I placed my order on your website.

I've had the Pfadt sways on my car for about 3 weeks now. They're great and well worth the money. The cars is much more responsive now. The numb on center feeling in the steering is gone. It corners much flatter. The car feels totally different with these sways. There is still some body roll, but like others have said, it's due to the height of the car. I'm sure when I drop it 1.5" it will all but disappear. The $500 these cost you is best suspension bang the buck.

Installing this weekend...I'll let you know on Monday :)

Good deal guys, keep up the rapport of this product!

Ok, I received my bars the other night from Brandon - thanks!

There were NO instructions! Is it just a replacement bar for bar? Where are the torque specs to tighten all the bolts?

Thanks,
Michael J.

Use the OE specs.

Ussually I see some reasonably decent answers from you but I am not even going to bother looking in the regular Camaro manual for those torque values as I am convinced they are not listed.

So, on behalf of post #11, what are these OE specs?

Ok, here's info from Jordon - I don't know where to find the OEM specs as I don't have a service manual, but thanks!

Attachment 59543