Originally Posted by
toedrag
If you've noticed that the roll is getting worse, maybe one or more of your stock dampers has failed? Go to each corner and push down to bounce the car; if it bounces repeatedly, the damper has failed. If it hardly bounces and returns to the normal position, then it's probably fine.
If you look at the Pedders Tech Talk section, they believe that a sway bar is one of the very last items a G8 should install, after bushings, coilovers, etc and should be used to change the distribution of side-to-side traction to dial in under/oversteer, not so much to control body roll. Body roll reduction happens to be a pleasant side effect of installing a sway bar (at a cost of reducing traction on the inside tire while moving it to the outside tire). They argue that the GT, and even the GXP, would benefit from just their spring & GSR damper upgrade combo. Now, I'm not a Pedders fanboi by any stretch, but their Tech Talk is something to think about. At the same time, maybe they say that to sell more stuff? But, their logic jives with general sway bar theory, so I don't think it's about selling more product. As an alternative to Pedders coilovers, you can get the BC adjustable coilovers for $1k, and while most people who get these drill the holes in the trunk for access to the adjusters, you could probably just set it and forget it without drilling the holes.
Remember, there is a relationship between the springs & sway bar such that if the bar is too stiff compared to the springs, the bar will lift the inside wheel up in the air during hard cornering. On the flip side, some cars with very stiff springs do not have sway bars at all.
In the end, if you want to keep the G8's soft ride, if you're not concerned about the side to side traction changes, if all you want is body roll reduction, and if you know your stock dampers are good, then the sway bar is the answer. Whiteline is another option for a solid bar, but BMR is still the least expensive.
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