The idea of an anti-roll bar sounds simple, doesn’t it? The name says it all: it’s a bar that resists body roll… But what should be a straightforward subject is surprisingly complicated, and by altering the front and rear anti-roll bars we can have a massive influence on how a car behaves.
And then we need to consider other factors such as spring rates, what the car is used for, what kind of handling balance we’re trying to achieve – and even a bit of good old-fashioned physics – and then try to string together the perfect setup for our specific application.
Some cars need stiff roll bars, some need softer bars, and some don’t even need any roll bars at all. And there’s no hard-andfast rule that says ‘cars like this need roll bars like that’, because each car and set of circumstances is different. There are too many variables to cover in a magazine, but we’ve covered the main areas to bring you a beginner’s guide and quick taste of what antiroll bars are all about.
CENTRE OF GRAVITY
Before we start looking at the anti-roll bars themselves, we first need a quick recap on some basic physics. Centre of gravity (CoG) is an entire topic worth discussing all on its own, but we can’t really talk about anti-roll bars without first understanding what the CoG of our car is, and how it affects the handling. In short, the CoG is the centre point of all the car’s mass, and the point at which all cornering forces act – which is why we need
