Feeler GB: Traction Control Bars, For those with power or with plans to get power Options

[jgreening]

I may see if Speed-source is willing to make us some traction control bars. Carl Crawford owns Speed-source and his fabrication skills are absolutely top notch. I am sure this will be a one time thing because of the low number of folks making any power. In other words, if you don't get it now, you likely won't be able to. I suspect the price will be in the $350 range. Post up if you are interested. If there are enough people, I will contact him and I suspect he will make them for us. I am looking for at least 8 people.

1. Jay


See this thread for more info:

Traction Thread

Here is a picture of a Full Race traction control bar:



This post has been edited by jgreening: May 23, 2006 - 11:25 AM

[jgreening]

What exactly do traction control bars do?

A few people have asked me this.

First, read the full-race article that is posted (reading that is the long answer).

Full-Race Traction Bars Article

The short answer is that they reduce wheel spin for greater traction in FWD cars that have enough horsepower to spin the tires.

The medium answer is that the lower control arms on the front of our cars have two rubber bushings that are designed to absorb vibrations in the suspension components to give a fairly smooth ride - similar to rubber motor mounts. Like rubber motor mounts, under higher than normal torque, the rubber bushings flex. In the case of motor mounts, this causes the engine to rock back and forth in the engine bay and eventually wear out the mounts. When the rubber bushings on the lower control arms flex, the wheel alignment changes momentarily (generally toe-in but also positive and negative camber - particularly in corners). This means that the contact patch of the tires are either not lined up straight or that less than the full contact patch is firmly planted on the pavement. What happens? The wheels spin on the ground easier. The easiest fix would be to replace the rubber bushings with brass ones but then you would add alot of unwanted vibration to the car and in the cabin. To address the problem without getting unwanted vibration, the traction bars hold the lower control arms in place to keep a constant suspension geometry and improve traction to the best extent possible (all other things being equal).

Hope that helps.

This post has been edited by jgreening: May 30, 2006 - 8:33 PM