Separating ride from roll...?

[exwestracer]

Jay,
I don't think your model is accurately representing the loads placed on the system... As long as the C/G is above the roll center, you are going to have increased loading on the outside tire. The anti-roll bar does not change the load going onto the outside corner. What it does do is to keep the car flatter by unloading the inside tire (picking it up off the ground in extreme cases). Normally the weight on the inside corner exceeds the lift generated by the bar, so the car "falls" back toward a level state. This isn't the greatest thing for traction, obviously...but that's a topic for another thread (coming soon).

You are correct that a lower roll center (as offered by the Mumford linkage I am using) does cause more side shift of the chassis over the tires, BUT the low roll center also reduces the amount of lift on the inside, which improves total traction. It's common knowledge that a larger front bar will increase understeer, so the theory is backed up in practical application. We don't like to feel like we're going to roll the car in hard cornering; so the bar does tend to improve driver confidence, which can easily reduce laptimes. I'm still employing plenty of anti-roll force...just in a way that is much more controllable and doesn't reduce inside tire load nearly as much as a fat sway bar...