Rear sway bar on a 66 small block

[Dennis B.]

Has anybody installed the rear sway bar kit from VBP suspension products on a C2 small block car that previously had no sway bar?

[Wayne K.]

Re: Rear sway bar on a 66 small block

Dennis,

From past experience whatever bar you add to the rear make sure you change the front bar to one that is matched by the mfg. to go with the rear. You might also forget a rear bar and just go with a larger front one if you haven't already tried that.

Wayne

[Joe L.]

Re: Rear sway bar on a 66 small block

Dennis------

I do not recommend adding a rear bar to a small block. In fact, my recommendation would be to leave the set-up as it is (3/4" front, no rear) unless you are planning on doing some serious off-highway racing with the car.

[John H.]

Re: Rear sway bar on a 66 small block

Adding a rear stabilizer bar (without re-balancing the chassis by adding a stiffer front bar) will dramatically increase oversteer tendencies, especially in transients. Trying to out-engineer the engineers who developed the Corvette chassis with catalog parts without understanding the dynamics involved seldom gives positive results.

[Duke W.]

Re: Rear sway bar on a 66 small block

Joe and John are right on! The OE base suspension was well engineered and has minimal understeer. Roll is also well controlled for anything less than racing.

C2's can benefit from some judicious suspension tuning. Begin by buying the highest performance tires available on the market. Tires are the foundation of handling! You can spend all the money you want on the suspension, but it will be limited by tires if they are hard compound and low speed rating, which is typical of the "cosmetic performance tires" that many owners install.

If you drive hard, have good tires, and want improved response and grip, start by setting front and rear camber at about -1 degree. Set the caster as high as you can stand - up to about 2.5 degrees (steering effort increases with increased caster, but it improves steering feel and tracking as well as increasing negative camber gain with body roll), and install hard urethane bushings in the front anti-roll bar links.

The alignment settings are guidelines and the final settings can be a matter of some experimentation until the driver finds the setup that suits him the best.

Spend the big bucks on the best available tires and shocks (I recommend Spax adjustables so you can tune the damping to your preference and driving conditions.), and then spend the time to tune the alignment and shocks to achieve best handling based your own individual preferences.

Duke

[Dennis B.]

Re: Rear sway bar on a 66 small block

I did a total suspension rebuild first. New steering box, upper A arm shafts, polyurethane bushings all around, new springs fornt and rear, Bilstein shocks, ball joints, tie rod ends, new idler arm, drive shaft and half shafts rebuilt and balanced, new 3:55 rear end, rebuilt trailing arms, stainless steel shims, adjustable strut rods and a new 3/4" front sway bar. Front and rear end alignment. I felt that the rear sway bar would just finish the job right. The car rides so much better than it did before that it is fun to drive it again.