One way to make a classic musclecar handle better is to install a sway bar, both front and rear. We’ve done a couple of applications ourselves and after seeing how well the car handled after we installed a set of performance sway bars from Hellwig Products, it give us the itch to take the car further and make more modifications for road racing.

These applications cover classics from the 1950s through today’s modern musclecars, as well as many truck applications. Many classic cars didn’t have rear sway bars, and some didn’t even have a front sway bar. Adding sway bars, or anti-roll bars, to the front and rear of a heavy classic musclecar helps keep the car more level during hard cornering and spirited driving.

These bars are great for stock or aftermarket applications: many of Hellwig’s bars will indicate whether their new sway bars will replace the factory, or if it’s designed to bolt in where a factory bar didn’t exist. Factory replacements are typically thicker, stronger sway bars that utilize the factory mounting locations while the non-factory bars include all necessary hardware and instructions for adding brackets or drilling holes to accommodate an new sway bar.

The 1972 Demon replacement sway bar would never fit with all the custom work done. Hellwig Products found a solution that helps get this Demon level in the turns.

These bars are designed to fit a vehicle with stock-type suspension components, and are a great fit and will install in just a couple of hours. But once you start modifying the suspension on a classic musclecar, such as what Viau Motorsports did with their 1972 Dodge Demon, factory-style replacement bars aren’t going to fit.

With the leaf springs moved in two inches, everything got a bit tighter inside the leaf springs.

With this Demon, the factory leaf springs have been moved further inward to accommodate bigger, wider tires, and instead of sitting just outside of the rear frame rails, the new mounting location for the leaf spring is moved in 2 inches and even with the frame rail. The factory rear sway bar, as well as aftermarket bars, are too wide to fit on the car, meaning car owner Marc Viau had to do without a rear sway bar for the time being.

The plans for this 550+ horsepower Demon were initially to drag race the car, but Viau has set his sights on the cone zone after a couple of tries in the autocross. The motivation for this 2010 Mopars at the Strip True Street winner is a stroked 408 cubic inch small block with lots of performance goodies under the hood and inside the block, and while it’s proven to be a great performance car with lots of power, the lack of a rear sway bar gave too much lift in the corners and handling suffered.

That’s when we reached out to David Wheeler at Hellwig Products to see if he could find a solution for this Demon. We took some measurements under the car with the car on a drive-on lift so that we could assess distances between specific points with the suspension loaded. Whenever a sway bar is installed, or measurements are taken like this for a custom sway bar, it’s important that the suspension isn’t hanging from a typical two-post lift.

We took some pictures, and measured the distance between the two leaf springs, and provided this information to Wheeler. He told us that they have often come across this type of scenario and that he loves to help enthusiasts out and provide solutions for these difficult custom applications. After giving the measurements to Wheeler, he determined that the E-body Mopar rear sway bar would be the best choice for a rear sway bar for Viau’s Demon.

We had to keep in mind that there’s more to measuring for a sway bar than just the distance between leaf springs. The size of the pumpkin matters because the bar has to clear it, and there’s also the exhaust system to contend with. In this situation, Viau had custom mufflers built that allowed the exhaust to exit to the side of the car just before the rear tire.

This custom exhaust left very little room for mounting a sway bar, and the distance between the muffler and the leaf spring/frame rail was extremely tight. Provided with all of the hardware and the motivation, lead technician Aaron Bourdage went to work and fabricated the end links from the Hellwig kit with heim joints for the lower end.

This alteration allowed the heim joint to fit between the muffler and the leaf spring, and with a few washers for spacers Bourdage was able to space the end link to the proper location and so there wasn’t any bind on the link or the sway bar.

Converting the drop links to use heim joints allowed them to fit between the leaf springs and the custom mufflers.

The rest of the sway bar mounted to the rear differential much like the stock application, and with the new sway bar figured out and customized by Bourdage, the only thing left to do was to paint the bar black – like most every other part on this custom Demon. Viau now has a better handling custom-built car without having to fabricate a complete rear sway bar system. We asked Viau about the handling now that he’s hooked up with Hellwig Products and he tells us the difference is like night and day. Next stop: back to the autocross.

If you find yourself with an unusual or non-stock situation and need to find a solution for your front or rear sway bar, be sure to get in touch with Hellwig Products through their website or Facebook fan pages. Wheeler said he welcomes anyone who has a custom application to give them a call and he’ll do his best to get you handled.