Quote:
Originally Posted by VR Baron
I wonder about the actual in car stiffness differences myself. The hotchkiss bar does have freer movement due to the greased poly bushings. The ride quality up front is actually a bit better because of the poly. The front is stiffer and flatter in turns as to be expected, and stiffness feel is closer to the rear feel. The stock bar made the front feel softer vs the rear. I don’t know what 40% stiffer bar is supposed to be over stock, the combo is stiffer but it just doesn’t seem like a lot. Roll is less but not a huge difference, just enough to flatten the roll mostly in most turns. Understeer is more of course, but I use it for the square tire setup so not too bad. So the stock rubber bushings may help the stock bar be a bit stiffer in actual operation.
My front sle bar also appears to have preload on one end, the endlink is mounted different or the strut is .The right side is higher by 1/4”. Assuming for the cross weights as well. It is high that side using the stock bar or my hotchkiss bar. Both using stock end links. My 2012 SS was the same way. With stock struts , springs or two different coilovers.
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My '22 front OE bar was about 1/4 -3/8" preloaded, IIRC. I'm at work right now, my notes are at home, but that falls in line with your observation. Are you running the Hotchkis rear bar also?
I measured the front OE endlink lengths and they look to be the same. And the their mounting brackets on the struts look to be in the same place, but I didn't measure those I just did a visual comparison. Someone here on the forums had a video of observed preload on an installed Hotchkis bar. It's either engineered in the bend of both the OE and aftermarket bars or it's somewhere else that is creating the preload.