Rear sway bar

[czaja74]

I installed ultra racing front strt brace and rear sway bar.

I cut the old bar and guess what ..... it is hollow?! Even 2004 camry bar is more solid. Cost cutting? anyway I thought I share it.

Edited April 2, 2010 by czaja74

[Mole]

If you cut open your new one I bet thats hollow as well, most are.

[450HP/tonne]

The reason for this is in no way a cost reduction! It is more so a weight reduction, as the material on the inside of a solid bar is really doing nothing in torsion, the peak stress is concentrated at the circumference. The designer can therefore choose a tube with a slightly larger outside diameter over a smaller diameter solid bar, whilst saving half the weight.

Just like different springs and different shock valving, the outside diameter and wall thickness can be tuned to give the desired dynamic performance with compromise for packaging (a 50mm diameter tube with 0.25mm wall is close in torsion to a 25mm diameter with 2.6mm wall or a solid 11mm bar - but the 11mm bar is twice as heavy as the 25mm tube which is 4 times heavier than the 50mm tube). Its always a packaging versus performance versus weight compromise!

[Adamsy]

Yeah the AT-X Prodigy, Presara and SE models all have hollow rear bars. Only the Sportivo's and TRD cars have solid rear bars. :)

Edited April 3, 2010 by Adamsy