I need to set up my 88 GTA for the quarter mile. I'm wondering if anyone has tried removing the 2 straight bars by the gas tank, the bar that follows the drive shaft and the front sway bar??? How well does this work? Thanks for the info.


------------------
1988 GTA (36,000 original miles):
Crane Cam, K&N
Flowmaster, Off Road Pipe, NOS,
MAC underdrive pullies
Tuned by Motorsport Depot (402)274-3831.
1/4...12.90s at 112mph

 

Are you talking about the pan hard bar?


If you are I wouldn't remove it!

------------------
1985 Iroc-z, 14 second 305, new engine in the works.

 

Yeah. Why?

 

I can only imagine it would cause more wheel hop

not only that but your rearend would shift left to right under the body

------------------
1985 Iroc-z, 14 second 305, new engine in the works.

 

Yeah, that's a good point. I took them off and found out that it doesn't work. Bad idea for anybody thinking about it.

 

The bars by the gas tank are the panhard bar and it's mounting brace. These keep the rear end centered under the car. Without them there's nothing keeping the diff from moving side to side.

The bar running up the driveshaft is the torque arm. This keeps the diff from twisting right around when you accelerate.

All these parts are required. OK not all. I don't have the upper brace for the panhard bar on my car. Your best bet for drag racing is to replace all of them including the lower control arms with aftermarket parts. The factory ones are not really designed for performance usage.

Get rid of the front sway bar for sure and if your car has a rear sway bar it's actually helpfull to leave it on.

------------------
Follow my racing progress on Stephen's racing page
and check out the race car

87 IROC-Z SuperPro ET Bracket Race Car
461 naturally aspirated Big Block

Best ET on a time slip: 11.447 altitude corrected to 10.99
Best MPH on a time slip: 119.42 altitude corrected to 124.86
Altitude corrected rear wheel HP: 493
Best 60 foot: 1.586

Racing at 3500 feet elevation with a typical race day over 5000 feet density altitude!
Member of the Calgary Drag Racing Association

87 IROC bracket car, 91 454SS daily driver, 95 Homebuilt Harley

 

Wow, I bet that was a floppy mess.

The panhard rod locates the rear axle side to side.
You can't remove it without locating the axle some other way.

The "bar that follows the drive shaft" is a torque arm. It converts the twisting force of the axle into upward thrust on the body and downward thrust on the rear tires durring acceleration and reduces front end dive durring braking.
The torque arm is very simular to ladder bars if you have heard of them. Since these cars only have one pair of rear control arms and they are both on the same plane, the torque arm locates the pinion angle as well.
You can't remove it without locating everthing some other way, but you can replace it with a better one, and even a shorter one to improve traction.

You can remove the front sway bar to save weight and improve weight transfer to the rear tires. But the car will handle much different on the road. It may understeer alot, and feel kind of "mushy" in the front.

Do not remove the rear sway bar. It helps reduce the bodies twist while accelerating. The right rear of the body tries to squat while the right rear tire tries to lift. Many try to reduce this further by installing a larger rear swaybar.

------------------

Tracy /AKA IROCKZ4me
'86 IROC-Z Camaro
"Cogito ergo zoom"

• 355 cid
• AFR heads
• Arizona Speed & Marine hydraulic roller cam w/ AFR hydra-rev kit
• modified SLP runners
• TRW forged pistons/ceramic coated
• fully balanced
• Edelbrock headers/ceramic coated
• SLP cat-back
• Paxton supercharger
• Nitrous Express nitrous oxide

EFI Performance Club on Yahoo