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      04-16-2012, 04:02 PM   #12
mmilkov
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Drives: 2008 BMW 135i
Join Date: May 2011
Location: Los Angeles

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Quote:
Originally Posted by Bimmer-Bob View Post
I believe he's saying that the greater negative camber provided by the bar itself outweighs the negatives. Not that the bar contributes to any amount of negative camber statically, but by preventing the shift to positive camber under lateral load.

Theoretically, of course.
The only thing the swaybar does is reduce body lean. If the suspension had a tendency to go to positive camber when the car leans, then I concur with you that the swaybar would help in reducing understeer. However, my actual observation during autocross driving is that there is now substantially more understeer. So your theory that the swaybar counteracts positive camber evidently doesn't hold.
In fact, as I pointed out in the previous post, it may be the opposite. The suspension may provide dynamic negative camber when loaded. A stiffer swaybar prevents body lean and hence loading of the suspension and thus negates some of that negative camber. This leads to understeer. This is just a conjecture on my part based on my observation of increased understeer with the stiffer swaybar. I will let people more knowledgeable on the McPherson suspension geometry to comment.
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