[DML] Sway Bars and Santa Claus

["Gus Schlachter" <gus@xxxx>]

I've gotta vote "no" against the rear sway bar, if my car handling is
typical. While returning from a party on Christmas eve, I had a deer jump
out in front of me, instigating my first panic-stop in the Delorean. I was
on a slight curve, however, and experienced 180 degrees of oversteer! I did
avoid the deer, however. (Reindeer?...)

The funny thing about the evening is that the party host, who was a
friend-of-a-friend that I'd just met, was a Delorean owner! I castigated
him for not driving the car, since he left it with his parents who start it
for him regularly. But he bought the car in the mid-80's and took it
cross-country a couple of times over the years, so I cut him some slack.
:-)

Gus Schlachter
Austin, TX
VIN# 4695


> -----Original Message-----
> From: William T Wilson [mailto:fluffy@xxxx]
> Sent: Sunday, December 26, 1999 6:08 PM
> Subject: [DML] Re: The Resurrection of Vixen (#5927) continues...
>
> On Tue, 21 Dec 1999, Dave Stragand wrote:
>
> > 1) How does a rear sway bar affect handling? Anyone have one that
> > could give me some insight?
>
> A rear sway bar does two things. First, it provides sway stiffness.
> Second, it adjusts the balance between oversteer and understeer. A
> stiffer sway bar reduces body lean at the expense of more weight
> transfer.
...
> The stock DeLorean has no rear sway bar. As a result, the front sway bar
> does all the work. This adds a great deal of understeer, compensating
> for the DeLorean's natural oversteer tendencies from the rear mounted
> engine.