Rear sway bar needed for 2nd gen f-body

[cdoggy81]

Hey guys,
I have a 71 TA, LS3, ridetech front coil overs & control arms, big f sway bar, subframe connectors, solid body mounts & 245 front tires. For the rear I have Hotchkis stiffer drop leaf springs with 285 tire. Question is do I need to mount a rear sway bar with my current setup? May race it once a year & autocross 2x a year tops, hit the drag strip, do a few legs of the power tour, tail of the dragon, basically 95% spirited street driving :) I have heard it both ways for the rear bar so let me know the latest thoughts on the rear bar.
Thanks!

[Skip Fix]

I never liked the feel of no rear bar. But too big a bar would pick up the inside rear tire sometimes It also helps at the drag strip launch straighter.

[cdoggy81]

Talked to ridetech & dse today as well as a few other notable people in the car community. Consensus is I will add one. Well, everyone said I should have one if I wanted to be able to hit Seabring & Road Atlanta on the way to Dragons Back as well as a few autocross stops, run a few power tour legs, etc. I should get one. The rear bar increases the total roll resistance so the chassis won’t roll so much when cornering. hard. Plus the rear tires are 4 sizes larger than the front so good idea to have one.

Pure street driving with even tire size & stiff rear leaf springs I would probably not notice a huge difference but not the case here.

Thanks

[carbuff]

If you decide that you want to add one, I might have a good option for you. Years ago I purchased a rear 2nd gen bar from Dave Pozzi that was originally used on Bad Penny. The bar was originally a Hotchkis bar, Dave modified it by cutting off the arms and mounting solid bars with multiple holes in it. If I remember correctly I think it has 6 holes which allows you to adjust the sway bar rate quite a lot. It's great for tuning and perhaps would be a good option for you to allow you to experiment and adjust.

I have some pictures I can send later if you're interested. I have it still in the box I received it in. If I recall correct, Dave told me way back when that one or two of the bolts were missing, but the rest is just standard Grade 8 hardware, so anything missing could be easily replaced.

Let me know if you'd like to discuss further...

[cdoggy81]

Thanks carbuff! I will be running one. I have a 1” solid bar stock type I was going to use but would be open to something with adjustability. What did you use on your 70 and 71 if you didn’t run that one?

[carbuff]

I ultimately ran a tube through the trunk, made some pieces to support it through the frame rails, and used a Speedway bar with custom bent arms to clear the rear tires and inner fenders. It was a lot of work but turned out really nicely.