Re: Sway Bar Synopsis (and a question) GET SRS SUSPENSION!!!

[Iain Mannix <mannix@secretignition.com>]

At 11:18 PM -0500 08/18/1998, Jim Buck wrote:
>Let me add to this that Bob Tunnell won the SCCA Nationals in ES in 1984
>driving a
>Jetta with a 2" diameter front bar that he had an RV company bend up for him.
>
>Jim


Right - actually, though, it was in 92 or so.  The bar still exists(it
surely has not rusted away yet;), although it is not for sale, last I
asked.  It fits an A2 - the car that won ES was an 87 Jetta 2 door, no AC,
no sunroof, 10:1 Digifant engine, basically, a stripper GTI in a 2 door
Jetta body.  There were 12 made, 4 red, 4 black, 4 white(fuzzy on the exact
breakdown).  Bob's white one now lives in Ohio or something, although there
is a red one in Boulder - I've talked to the guy, he sorta knows he's got
an unusual car, but he does not know just how cool it is;).  Bob almost
brought that white Jetta to DSP, too(whew!), in fact, he had already
purchased a Quaife for the project.  Fortunately, he decided to get into
the BMW world(318i, M3).  Cool.  The bar is 2 1/4" in diameter, not exactly
sure how it attaches - I'd have to see it on a car.  It is huge.

Sorta goes to show - when building an autocross car, the simple addition of
"a swaybar" or "springs" does not necessarily make that portion of the
car's development complete.  I've talked to a bunch of DSP guys who say
things like "well, I've already got springs and swaybars...." implying that
they can't do anything else to the car(and it is uncompetitive, etc).  Most
of the fastest Nationally competitive Stock class cars have taken
_advantage_ of the rules - any shock, right?  Mark Daddio's DS Neon is
almost as stiff as my car.  How?  Revalved shocks - they're _really_ stiff.
Sure, adding spring rate through shocks is'nt the "right" or "proper" way
to make a car go fast, but neither is a 2.25" swaybar;).  If all you can do
is mess with shocks, front bar and alignment, adjustable Konis, Nspeed 22mm
bar and 1.5d negative is'nt the whole picture.  Bob told me he used _as
much_ camber a he could get, using crash bolts top and bottom.  I don't
know about an A2 Jetta, but with crashbolts on my Rabbit, I can get close
to 4 degrees - 3 is enough for my suspension.  Even with all that
rollstiffness/camber/shock, Bob's car still rolled quite a bit - but if you
look at the picture, say, the one on the back of Schroder's new VW Tuning
book, the outside front wheel is still basically vertical(a touch positive,
but all things considered, pretty darned good).

I saw a post recently about interesting cars at a VW show - KenW, maybe?
Anyhow, he mentioned "Doctor Boltz," which apparently had a show car there
- - Dr.Boltz was Tunnell's primary sponsor at the time, they're a Hermosa
Beach outfit, apparantly, they do _very_ good work on VWs, according to
Bob(long after his sponsorship deal ended).  I was interested to see the
name again - Boltz went on to sponsor Bob's 318 for a little while(which
won DS(Neon class) by 0.9 at Nationals - unreal), eh, who knows.  It seems
important at the top of the sport to _maximize_ the rules.  Daddio was
unbelievably fast at the Tour last weekend(two weekends ago), like, 1
second faster than all of the other DS Neons.  He's a great driver, no
doubt, but it has something to do with setup, too.  I'll shut up......


I.Mannix


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