Has anyone installed the watt's link system on their car? I've heard it helps a lot. But is it with the extra cost over an adjustable panhard bar? How much weight does it add? Would it help any when trying to drift with my 92 camaro or should I just stick with the panhard bar?

 

there's only 1 member on here that I know of that has installed the watts bar.. his sn is twinturbo. Look at his teardown of his camaro n u should see it in there

 

I have one on my car. It helped greatly over the panhard rod.

Not sure of the weight, but I would not hesitate to get one.
They give you an adjustable roll center to balance the car & positive side-to-side location. Stability is greatly increased with the Watts link.

Check out www.Stranoparts.com

 

what do you do with your car that you've noticed an improvement? What have you done with your rear spring rate now that you've changed your rear roll center? I know the watts link looks sexy, but unless you're pounding the car on serious autocross use or open track days, I'm not sure it's worth the money. I'm not saying it's a bad piece, i'm just saying that people need to understand how it works before they buy it, and for street use only, I'm not sure you'd notice a difference.

 

Now having a few time attack events under my belt I find it hard to believe some of the claims about handling posted here. There's no way you can push that hard on the street.

btw, fwiw I run a lowered aluminum phb setup with shortened lcas, 250 lb/in springs w/konis. Last time out I blew away everyone even with an open diff and no rear brakes and a completely stock L03 w/ tpi. Only one modded STI barely posted a quicker lap and that's not going to happen again now that I have brakes and rebuilt the posi The PHB is not holding anyone back on this forum, this I can assure you

 

The top hole is very close to the factory roll center... just slightly lower. It helped my oversteer problem. I actually went back to my stock 24 bar from the 22 I had on it. Also made the car more predictable & more consistent handling in both directions.

Running 800/150 springs, 36/24 bars & Konis with 275/40-17 on all 4's

Now I want to try more rear spring so I can play with the roll center some more.

I'm posting my experiences... The price gave some grief, but after a ride I knew it was worth every $$.

Also I only street drive my car, but it is mostly on winding back roads.

 

that is the point I was trying to make...


I have no doubt that you felt a difference with the watts link, but it was likely because you lowered the rear roll center, which you could have also done with the panhard bar for much less. There are some seriously fast road race third and fourth gens that still use a panhard bar. This topic has been hotly debated amongst many competetive autocross and road race guys, and there is no clear victor between the watts and the panhard bar on this particular chassis.

I'm not trying to make you feel bad for purchasing it. It is a cool piece and we live in a free country, so enjoy. I'm posting for the consideration of others to get the biggest bang for their buck. I will say that before I did the IRS swap I was strongly considering the watts link setup....

 

You wont hurt my feelings. I'm not one of those that act like all the things I buy are the best ever... if it sucked I would have said so. No ego or bragging going on here. Someone asked & I gave my honest opinion based on real results.

As for the roll center relocation, if memory serves correctly, the top hole lowers roll center about 1/2" below stock, nothing huge here. Tried lower holes & it obviously needs stiffer rear springs for this change as it understeered quite a bit. My next test will be stiffer rear springs to try with the lower roll center settings.

I do understand that it is possible to achieve similar or near equivalent results with a panhard relocation in some cases. My take is, no fabrication, a ton of adjustability & I did not cut anything up on my car to use it.

The most helpful feedback would be from someone that actually tried one & saw no improvement over their previous setup, along with info on their superior combination.

 

Then head on over to www.frrax.com and do a search....

 

I've been a member there for quite a few years & even bought my springs from Trackird.

Actually I did read the approx 50 posts on Watts links & the majority claimed benefits. If they were mostly bad, I would not have purchased one.

 

The watts setup changes the way the car rolls. THe car will roll easier with more leverage so a larger swayvar will be beneficial as opposed to the same spring rate and roll center height on a PHB setup. The watts setup will stay more predictable but will transition the rear weight of the car laterally a bit slower but evenly.

The PHB setup allows the rear roll center to migrate left and right yawing the roll axis where the watts fixes the rear roll center dead center at all times whereas the bodyweight rolls upon it. I personally perfer the advantage of a migrtating roll center since the PHB is so long that lateral jacking is not much an issue with properly setup PHB mounts and split heights even. The added leverage of a migrated RC will weight the inside rear tire more than the watts will.

 

I'm building my car for some serious corner carving, and plan on making many changes to the platform ( including a watts link from Fays2). With that, some floor pan mod's & an extreme torque arm ( shorter & tunnel mounted independent x member ), from BMR, will give me more room and clearance for a much better exhaust system (i.e. ground clearance )

 

I've had this conversation with a few people, but they don't believe it.

 

You've never ridden with me. There are plenty of times my tires and brakes are as hot as on a track.