GSpeed Blade Adjustable Sway bars
This product has been over a decade in planning and now finally we are ready to release it to the public.
Running a blade adjustable swaybar is nothing new to those in the professional racing world. These style of bars have been found on everything from TransAm race cars to Formula cars for decades, but using one with a production car has been a challenge. Generally pieces like this were found on purpose built race cars using tube frames or radically modified production frames, severely modified control arms just to get them to fit. They offered a very Narrow range of motions that needed resetting after large ride height changes because race cars do not see much movement. Finally we were able to solve all of those issues and create a complete, full bolt in front blade adjustable sway bar for the C5 and C6 Corvettes.
Above: Typical TransAm race sway bar setup shown with cable for cockpit adjustments
Why blade?
We are all familiar with the typical non adjustable or 2/3 way adjustments that we find on current one piece bars. These are relatively inexpensive to make and can provide a good adjustment tool to dial your car in on track. But what if you could have 15+ adjustments, and be able to do it on the fly as your tires go away and fuel load drops? The blade style system does just that. By simply changing the angle of the bar you are now changing the rate of the bar itself over all and you can not stiffen or soften the setup as tires/track conditions change.
Above: how the blade works and relates to multi hole sway bars.
Above: typical cockpit adjustment controls.
Why do blade style bars cost more?
Time and materials. To have a blade style bar that functions smoothly and correctly there are some critical components that have to be fit and machined to very close tolerances, as you would with any moving part requiring bearing movement. On the end of the bar itself there is a bearing housing which needs to be welded onto the main bar that carries the ball bearings that the blade pivots. As we know, welding destroys any precision that was machined into this part. The housing must now be brought back into spec by machine work and a final hone to fit. With the bearings installed the blade can now be fit and sealed to the bearings allowing easy movement for the driver. The blade itself has to be manufactured using a very specific spring steel since it is being loaded in a number of directions depending on adjustment during use. Subpar materials can quickly crack, and fail with little warning. This is the reason we have chosen to use only blades from a leading manufacturer who have been a long standing leader in professional racing from GrandAm, TransAM, ALMS, and more. The blades are a bit more money than others found on the market but we feel the quality and durability for our product is worth a slight increase in costs because of this.
Above: here you can see a close up of the blade, bearing housing, and the bar itself.
Weight
The nice thing about the bars, other than the killer range of adjustments is that we can also drop some weight. How you ask? By being able to fit a much larger diameter than the OE bars means we can increase stiffness without having to go solid or super heavy wall. The blade then brings us into a wider range of adjustments from there so in the end we have a way stiffer setup without the huge weight penalty that goes along with a big diameter solid bar. Depending on model you can see up to 5lbs of weight dropped from the car over a typical T1 bar.
It’s still a track only part, mainly due to the rear bar interfering with the mufflers, and the price tag reflects that of something you would only find on a race car. We’re now able to achieve 2-2.5* the stiffness of a T1 front bar and anywhere in between, yet losing almost 5lbs off the nose. We’re using precision made blades and a 5 axis machined blade housing to prevent warpage from welding, post weld boring, all of which significantly cuts down on fab time.
If you have any questions please feel free to contact us for more info!