The Dodge Challenger Message Board

Aftermarket front and rear bars are available for Challengers (e.g., from Performance Suspension Technology). A front bar is at the top of my mod list as my 72 did not come with one.

I read, I think in my manual, that rear bars were only an option on certain Challengers; I read somewhere else that they are not necessarily a good idea. A couple of years ago I called the Mopar Performance tech line to ask for more info on rear bars and they said they would not recommend them - they even seemed reluctant to discuss them. Would they tend to make the rear of the car too likely to break loose? And would this be affected by size and power of engine, rear springs, torsion bars, etc.?

I would be satisfied with the front bar at this point but it would be interesting to know how much handling both bars could give you.

A rear bar is always a good idea as long as you do have a front one and it is larger than the rear. It sounds to me that the people you talked with know bugger all about suspension and that is why they don't want to talk about it.

I can't go into all the reasons for this here as time is short but there are many things that can make a car understeer or oversteer. It all depends on the weight balance of the car, the size of the tires and the stiffness of the suspension front and rear.

If your car drives ok with no under/over steer with a front bar but no rear then adding a rear bar could make the car oversteer as it is making the rear stiffer. However if the rear tires are wider or if you had less weight at the front that can make up for it. If you added a larger than stock bar to the front you would NEED to fit a rear bar otherwise it will understeer.

There is an exellent book called 'How to build a Super Street Mopar' by Mike Martin that covers everything you need to know.

Thanks!

I will hunt the book down. With no sway bars at all, I have nowhere to go but up.

Was a rear sway bar standard equipment on R/T in 1970-1971, or only in 1971?

I can tell you a rear sway bar was far from standard on the 1970 R/T. In fact it is rare to see one. However Paul Herd suggests that it did become standard from late 1970 onwards.

Thanks! When I read the Magazine adverts-section of your page (see the third advert from bottom)
it appeared to me that the 1971 R/T has one as standard so I decided to ask if it wasn't standard in 1970 too, and I got my answer.
(I have always thought that the T/A was the only model in 1970 to have a rear sway bar as standard equipment.)