Whats exactly is the difference between struts and sway bars? I understand that strut is a long support bar that comes across the bodyof the car.

 

Strut bars help reduce flex, they pretty much help with any body roll. They stiffen your car, thus help making the handling of your car better. You can have front and reat strut bars.

Sway bars can help understeer. They can make your car handle a little better. The best you can always get is an adjustable sway bar. Some people like more or less understeer for their car. Plus if you go to a track, not drag, you will need a different setting compared to the street.

 

Check out the lattest Sports Compact Car mag. In the back they have a performance dictionary and it thourhly describes handiling traits if your still confused. Also a front "sway" bar will affect understeer and a rear one will help oversteer(not usually a problem on fwd).

 

Strut tower braces are really only for stopping "body flex". It will not prevent body roll.

Anti-Sway bars or sway bars are to prevent the "body roll" a car experiences during cornering. They do nothing to prevent body flex.

They are different items intended to fix different problems.

 

I have the SR strut bars...they're cool. Is a sway bar a good investment? I'm thinking about one but not sure if $300-400 is worth it.

MiKE

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Power is nothing without Control

 

Sway bars are a good investment.

 

Sway bars are excellent investments, it helps to avoid body roll on cornering which creates over and understeering. Strut bars on the other han what they really do is to keep the geometry of the suspension by reducing flexing of the body (remember this vehicle does not have a chassis but the body works as chassis too monocoque design) due to torque transfered to the body under very aggresive cornering. When the suspension geometry is lost by body flex you loose handling ability. Different things for different purposes. I myself would go with sways first.