Aftermarket Rear Swaybar - Aerospace Style.
 

Finally got around to installing this in my car:

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-..._2168150_n.jpg

It's the stock rear bar with several layers of carbon fiber wrapped around it, Energy urethane bushings, and OT's $20/20 min mod for the endlink bushings. Final diameter of the bar is between 26.5 and 28 mm.

Impressions: I doubt I've had as much of an effect as Nevin's 22mm bar, although I'd have to drive both to compare. The carbon may be stiff, but it's not that strong. The car drives nicely with this setup and the rear seems to have more grip through the corners. That said, I'm far from an expert and may be suffering from the butt-dyno complex.

A couple more shots:

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-..._2740622_n.jpg

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-..._7758377_n.jpg

As far as I know this hasn't been done before. Possibly for good reason, there's a good chance the carbon will simply split apart under the twisting. Meh.

Re: Aftermarket Rear Swaybar - Aerospace Style.
 

I applaud you for attempting something new. Who knows maybe it will hold together?

What was your cost?

Re: Aftermarket Rear Swaybar - Aerospace Style.
 

My cost... About $7000. But that includes a free tuition. I made it at school using surplus supplies.

My program has a full composites lab (carbon, fiberglass, vacuum equipment, autoclave...) and we get donations of materials from various aerospace companies across Canada. Pre-preg composites (cloth with resin already added) expire after a certain amount of time. While they're no good for building airplanes anymore they still work well enough for anything else. We got a pile of material in January. So much in fact that we didn't have room for it. Pre-preg is temperature sensitive and must be kept in a freezer or the epoxy will lose it's effectiveness. Solution: Throw out oldest stock and use the room for new stuff. A few of us kept the throw-out material and made some little things. One of the guys took the remainder of the roll home to sell off by yard/use for projects.

My teachers all encourage us to experiment and discover for ourselves how to do things beyond the regular curriculum.

Re: Aftermarket Rear Swaybar - Aerospace Style.
 

That's awesome..

Neat. Maybe we can help you come up with some other uses.

I don't really have any ideas, unless you want to make some carbon fiber pants or something.

Re: Aftermarket Rear Swaybar - Aerospace Style.
 

Fixoredsmthng..

Re: Aftermarket Rear Swaybar - Aerospace Style.
 

Double Fixoredsmthng..

Re: Aftermarket Rear Swaybar - Aerospace Style.
 

I love applied creativity :)
I also see some gold wheels,
and a funky exhaust :eek:

Re: Aftermarket Rear Swaybar - Aerospace Style.
 

...carbon fiber hoods, trunks, fenders, driveshaft, and doors or something.

How bout carbon fiber sunvisors, lol? I mean, anything at this point would be great.

Re: Aftermarket Rear Swaybar - Aerospace Style.
 

How about carbon fibre STICKERS!!!!!

Re: Aftermarket Rear Swaybar - Aerospace Style.
 

:lol: Unfortunately I don't have enough material (or time) to go full production with parts, or even to make one-off items like hoods, trunks, or doors. (there's actually very little reason to make CF fenders for the SVX, the stockers only weigh a few pounds. Except bling factor.)

However... In our third year each student has an individual project. You design and make something, whatever you want (within reason), that falls within the scope of the course. It's incredibly wide open, just involve something to do with either composites, machining, welding, metal, airplanes, planning... Previous projects have been snowmobile lifts, carbon fiber bagpipes, CF guitar cases, entire guitars, one-off suspension parts for a Honda CRX road racer... So really anything. My idea at the moment is to make an intake manifold almost entirely out of carbon fiber, with machined aluminum flanges and fittings. Something like this:

http://greg-fish.com/cfintakemanifold2.jpg

I remember reading that the stock SVX mani weighs about 26 lbs. I might be able to knock 15-20 lbs off that. I plan to have a CAD model designed this summer, and possibly go to my old university and see if they have and fluid dynamics programs that I can borrow to simulate it.

Yep, gold STi BBS wheels. The gold bits on the swaybar were painted with Grimmspeed's gold BBS paint, so they match the wheels almost perfectly. The exhaust is my custom cat-ish-back Cherry Bomb system. (Thread)

Sunvisors.... Now that's an idea I might be able to do something with. Foam core, dissolve after curing the CF, allow places to fit all the stock mirror/light bits... I'm actually going to think this one over further.

YES!!! Ones that say "This sticker removes 750 pounds of weight and adds 50 HP!":D

Re: Aftermarket Rear Swaybar - Aerospace Style.
 

I'm reading your last post in my email account [no pictures] thinking, intake manifold!! Sure enough, :D:cool:

Re: Aftermarket Rear Swaybar - Aerospace Style.
 

Meh, been done.

http://www.sdsefi.com/kis3.jpg

Didn't work out for the owner though.

http://www.sdsefi.com/sorrysight1.jpg

I'm starting to like the idea of some CF pants. Just don't do a dry weave, it chafes like you wouldn't believe.:lol:

Re: Aftermarket Rear Swaybar - Aerospace Style.
 

YEH, but I still want one :lol: