More Oversteer

[M0dnar]

What would increase oversteer more, a stiffer rear sway bar while keeping the front stock or a half roll cage that mounts in the rear?

I'm looking at doing one or the other, but not both so I'm trying to find out which would give me more oversteer.

[Soloshawn]

Understeer is a huge problem for Camaro's at the track. It just pushes bad. I have tried a stiff PFADT rear sway bar that didn't help the understeer. The best solution was a camber and caster plate from Moreno Sports. That way I could dial in the Camber and Caster. Huge difference in handling. A little push at the track is better than oversteer as the Camaro will spin out at the track.

[aFe POWER]

Yes a stiffer rear bar will help you increase oversteer.

[Nor Cal ZL1]

If you want to get the front to bite you need to measure the front tire temps at the track. This needs to be done when exiting the track on a hot lap.....no cool down time at all. These measurements will tell you how well the contact patch is working, or in most cases not making good contact on a stock car. Look at thetire temp at the inner edge/ middle/outer. Take the measurements with a tire pyrometer on tbe tire that has experienced the most load. Your looking for a 10 degree spread hotest from the inside of the tire growing cooler towards the outside. Using a drivers side front a good set up will look something like this
Outer 130 Middle 135 Inner 140
The difference between the inner and outer indicates the camber is correct
The middle temperature indicates the pressure is correct. Pressure has the greatest effect on the Mid temps.

An understeering car can be caused by a variety of reasons but I would start with reading the tires.

An example of alignments that cause understeering by tire readings again driver front as an example.

Outer 145 Middle 140 Inner 140
This tire is rolling onto edge and the tire needs more negative camber for the given spring rates

Too much camber is also bad the readings would look like this

Outer 120 Middle 135 Inner 140
In this example the car will understeer due to poor contact patch. The inner and mid are good but the outer is not used to optimum.

Reading the tires will tell you a ton about alignment, springs. It is the eyes into how to make a car set up work. Good readings on a track car can tell you if you need to change spring rates, alignment, and even compression and rebound on cars with adjustable shocks.

[White_SS/RS]

Big ticket items to rid the car of understeer:

Larger rear sway bar or smaller front
Same tire size on all 4 corners

[Red2014SS]

Originally Posted by White_SS/RS

Big ticket items to rid the car of understeer:

Larger rear sway bar or smaller front
Same tire size on all 4 corners

This is definitely some good advice. I made the mistake of going wider in the rear. The car understeered with the stock setup (which was also wider in back), but the new wheels made it worse. The addition of an adjustable, stiffer rear sway bar really helped bring things back in balance. I've still got some push, even on the sway's stiffest setting. I'll correct that when I buy my next set of wheels.

The trade off is, wider in back looks great and helps from a dig. If handling is your goal, same size all the way around works.

Edited to Add - The OPs car is a V6. If you decide to buy a rear sway, be sure to get one made for a V6. Many will not clear the brakes on a V6.

[Nor Cal ZL1]

While I agree with the above, ignoring the tire readings is wasting tires in more ways than one. I'm always amazed when guys will cook a 2000.00 set of tires in a single trackday, because they don't want to read them. Reading them maximizes tire contact and thus tire life, safety, and drops lap times. Even with the best of parts and advice its best to read the tires. Race teams and some vendors develop set ups and parts reading the tires. You can optimize your set up with a little research and a 160.00 pyrometer.

Cranking a bunch of camber or throwing parts at a car may, or may not cure your ills. Reading the tires will reveal the direction to go in every time. It will show if the camber is correct for the given track, tire up to temp. or overheated, tire below temp. These things reveal things concerning spring rates and how they are controlling weight transfer, enough, or too much/little. Did you screw up your geometry when you lowered your car will show up.

That said there are some known settings, and parts combo's that will get you close. I know JP develops with tire readings.

[White_SS/RS]

Nor Cal, you are right. Properly adjusted tire pressure and alignment are frequently overlooked and a crutial piece. Take my car and home track, running a larger sway in the rear imade the car overly loose. Where the back was always wanting to come around. I played with the tire pressures and running the fronts 3psi less brought it back to a neutral to slightly loose state.

[Destructo09]

Not sure what size the V6 bar is in the front, but my stock 2010 SS bar up front with a 1LE bar in the back and a square setup handles great, pretty much no understeer except really tight corners in AutoX. There's no way to fix that really though except a much smaller lighter car haha.

[M0dnar]

I was thinking about getting the Pfadt ZL-Spec rear sways with an adjustable camber and castor for the front end since the consensus here is sways and alignment. Just hoping the lowest setting on the ZL-Spec isn't going to be too stiff and still need to find someone just selling the rear.

[Destructo09]

You don't need camber plates, I put -2 camber in the front without using camber plates at all. The stock suspension is fairly adjustable.

[M0dnar]

I'm using a much smaller wheel size to solve for weight. So it's either $3k for wheels and tires or camber plates. I'm maxed out at -1.5.