1950-1966 [Subscribe to Daily Digest] |
You forgot to address the tendency for the front sway bar to increse the posibility of lifting a front wheel in mid corner. The solution to this problem is a Saab Sport and Rally limited slip differential. They are getting very very hard to find and expensive if you can find one.
There is nothing "special" about the double wishbone front suspension. Yes the 900 suspension is the same. The 900 is heavier, longer and has a wider rear track than a 99. All of these would tend to increase understeer. I dont own or drive a 900 with only a rear sway bar so I was trying to keep my comments on somthing that I know from first hand experience. I dont know why Saab put a say bar on the 900. Maybe because we Americans like a car that corners flat. It makes the car feel faster.
I may have been wrong about who makes the SAS sway bars kits, but the hardware all looks alot like the Addco stuff. Yes you could try to add more negitive camber and you could put in lower springs. Of course I already have 1.5 degrees of negitive camber dialed in the front of my 99. This is the maximum I can get out of my car without lowering the ride height. These cars simply love negitive camber. My tire wear is perfectly even and I only ocasionaly drive near the limit.
All I really ment to suggesting is that it is not necessary to have a front sway bar on this application to achieve a good handling bias. If you want a front bar just to see what it will do, or to experiment further then go on and have at it. For those of you for which it will cost an arm and a leg to get one imported, in my opinion this is not the holy grail of 99 handling. Look instead at stiffer springs from say a 1990+ SPG or some aftermarket lower stiffer springs. Get yourself some good shocks, I like Bilsteins on the 99, some people I know swear by Koni's, I knew a guy who modifed his to accept SPAX shocks. I have also have found that alignment is important. Get as much negitive camber as you can. As much Positive Caster, this helps with steering feel, and for some reason helps with cornering as well, its been explained to me by Jack Lawrace of MSS motorsports but I cant remember it off the top of my head. For toe just set it at 0.
Then if your really serious you can have your rear axle bent to provide some negitive camber and 0 toe if its off. I have not bent the axle on mine yet, but will in the future. This is a common trick among those who race the 99.
After you have it lined up go out and play around with tire pressures untill you have the handling you are looking for. A front bar may make these cars feel tighter and make them seem to turn in quicker, but the seat of the pants are lying. I believe you would find out on a race track or AutoX course that your times were slower with the front bar as opposed to without it.
David
1978 APC'd 99 EMS/turbo
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