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Courtesy of Steve Strasburg, RCH The Panhard bar is the bar that is used to keep the rear end from moving left to right. It also has an effect on the cars ability to roll from side to side, almost acting like a sway bar. There are many different types of Panhard bars on the market, staying with the chassis manufactures recommended bar is the best method. Straying from these recommendations can cause the tech support to not understand your condition and cause you to make bad chassis set-up decisions. There are different opinions on the correct type of Panhard bar; here are some of them. A short bar will help the chassis turn as well as a Panhard bar that is mounted on the front side of the rear end housing. A longer bar will promote more bite as well as a rear mounted bar. The theory of mounting the bar to the chassis on the left side promotes a lesser amount of roll center movement which is due to less chassis travel on the left side of the car. The facts of the adjusting the bar remain constant through all these theories. When you raise the Panhard bar, you decrease the chassis' roll, and will take bite off the left rear tire making the car turn better. When you lower the Panhard bar, you increase chassis roll, and will increase the left rear's ability to grip the track thus giving the car more traction or making the car tighter. There is a little controversy on the split from the left side to the right side of the Panhard bar's pivot points. In nearly every case the frame side of the Panhard bar is higher than the side that mounts to the rear end. This is due to chassis travel. More split will cause the rear end to travel left to right more and less split will do the opposite. The overall height is considered your rear roll center. When more split is used on a right side frame mounted Panhard bar, the rear end will move farther to the left side of the car causing the car to become tight, only if the average height of the Pahnard bar is the same. If more split is put into the Panhard bar by only raising the frame side, then you will loosen up the chassis making it turn better. The ideal place is to determine the amount the chassis rolls and take half of that to become your Panhard bar split. Back to News
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