Sway Bars 101 – Sway Bar Education With Hellwig Products

A friend once said, “back in the day we didn’t need disc brakes or sway bars, why do we need them on classic cars today? Nothing’s changed about the cars.” While that may be true, it’s definitely coming from an old timer who doesn’t get the basics of handling and suspension dynamics of today’s cars.

“Back in the day” we didn’t have cars stopping on a dime, weaving in and out of traffic tailgating unsuspecting drivers because everyone knew that it took some distance to stop those 3-4 thousand pound vehicles, and body roll was huge back then. Maneuvering a big car to avoid obstacles was a chore, and they didn’t grip the road very well with the skinny bias-ply tires.

But these days cars are built with better handling than the best that Detroit had to offer in the 1960s. So when we want to drive our classic cars amongst all these hyperactive, tailgating distractions on the road, the only way to beat them is to join them and make our classic cars handle better than they ever did.

Hellwig Products has an extensive line of sway bars for classic cars. Not only do they provide our classic cars with better handling, but they provide us with an explanation of why and how handling is important with their Sway Bars 101 Education page on their web site.

While sway bars are great for handling and aggressive driving, they can also help to “extend tire life by maintaining even pressure on all four corners of the vehicle in cornering situations,” according to Hellwig. We can attest to the need for sway bars on a classic car, because we have Hellwig bars on many of our own cars, and handling is improved immensely – which makes our cars much more fun to drive.

Hellwig’s sway bars are made with heavy duty 4140 chromoly steel that’s hot formed and heat treated for strength, performance and durability. Their hollow sway bars give up weight without sacrificing strength, and their adjustable sway bars allow you to fine tune your handling to help control over/under steer conditions.

Check out Hellwig’s web site and get a Sway Bar Education complete with a before and after video. See if they have a set of sway bars for your classic car. Get it handled, you won’t regret it!