An anti-sway bar is designed to reduce body roll.  It keeps your vehicle flatter in the turns by transferring the pressure exerted on the outboard wheels and applying opposite pressure on the inboard wheels.  In this way weight is more evenly applied to all four wheels, helping the vehicle stay more level with the road.

When setting out to design our SwayBarbarian, we looked at some important criteria which others had not addressed.  There is the issue of stiffness characteristics which were achieved, but to set the system apart from others, we have incorporated some unique features found only on the SwayBarbarian.

Technical details positive-placement bushing stop: adjustable rear links: adjustable / re-greaseable endlinks: polyurethane bushings: As an example of our attention to detail, the E46 3-series Sway Barbarians is a very unique set of bars.  Features include: - Revised contouring for maximum clearance even with extremely lowered cars. - Precision-cut adjustable ends. - Positive-stop rear bushing guides assure bar stays in place. - Greaseable and adjustable rear end links for silent operation - no clunks or rattles. - Urethane bushings, hardware kit, and lubrication included. Superior Materials We put our bars through this extensive process to insure that the final product will be the strongest, most durable bar on the market, and that it will be the most resistant to form alteration. Adjustability The  SwayBarbarian uses a multi-hole system on the front and rear bars which allows for fine tuning of the bar for whatever desired effect, without sacrificing body roll. SwayBarbarian Front Bar Rear Bar E46 3 hole adjustment 2 hole adjustment Positive-placement rear bushing stops To keep the tight-tolerance rear bar from shifting side-to-side, they are fitted with postiive-placement stops, rings around the bar that hold the bar in place against the bushings. Powdercoated Finish After the bars are CNC mandrel bent and the ends are forged and punched, a silver powdercoat is applied for a smooth, long lasting finish in a similar process to how factory bars are coated.  This smooth finish allows the bars, when properly installed with polyurethane bushings and grease, for long term performance with minimal maintenance. Adjustable and re-greaseable endlinks New Gen2 endlinks have steel-lined urethane bushings with standard grease fitting for long noise-free life.  No squeaking, clunking, or clicking as with "race" links. Polyurethane Bushings The SwayBarbarians include replacement polyurethane bushings which are built to "aircraft spec" (literally - our urethane fabrication facility uses the same material and production guidelines as they do for Boeing).  This results in a durable bushing that will not disintegrate and has longer re-lubrication intervals for long lasting, quiet results.  Be sure to use generous amounts of grease to ensure maximum performance from your SwayBarbarians!

BMW "SwayBarbarian" Sway Bars

By specifying more narrow front tires with wider rear tires, the car will want to continue to stay "planted".  Since US 3-series do not have enough horsepower to effectively throttle steer, the this new balance causes the cars to understeer more (or plow) when pressed to the limits.

While most current aftermarket sway bars reduce the amount of roll with larger diameter bars (being stiffer in nature), they do not address the issue of restoring "balance" at the same time.  Using the formula for the polar moment of inertia (in⁴), sway bar stiffness can be calculated assuming the following parameters:

• Bushing material remains the same
• Mounting location remains the same
• Metallurgy remains the same
• Adjustments can be made to duplicate the stock position
• No variations in end link length, tension or compression

When comparing the stock sway bar sizes to aftermarket bars, to the 95 M3, you find some interesting results.

Racing Dynamics' dimension further increase the car's tendency to understeer since the new sway bars increase the front stiffness more than the rear.  It's increases in stiffness do much to reduce body roll.

Dinan's sway bars are designed to dial in more oversteer, to counteract the factory designed understeer.  However, this is at the expense of increase front body roll.

What do the numbers mean to me?

With all of the "mathematical" increases in stiffness, what does it mean to you, the driver?  Extensive testing has shown that as driver skill increases (at the track/auto-x) that sway bars that increase stiffness too much cause inside front wheel lift in corners.  By making a front end too stiff (to decrease body roll), the chassis is not able to plant both wheels under turns with increased speed.  Anything stiffer than a 1.0" front bar has shown to be stiff enough (and can be reduced in stiffness) to be the ideal size.

What about the rear bar?

A common misconception is that the increase in rear bar stiffness alone is the sole cause for bent (or broken) rear sway bar tabs (the tabs which mount the sway bar bushings).  In fact, even under race conditions, most racecars do not break the tabs.  Rather, rear sway bar tabs bend (or break) because of daily obstacles such as potholes, construction, and other road hazards.  It is the sharp transition and weight shift in such conditions which will weaken and stress the factory tabs.  In the events that the tabs do break, they are built into the rear subframe of the vehicle, which becomes a costly replacement.