F:R weight bias and corner weights

[Martin]

Even taking our cars numbers once you add a driver it could be 80kg heavy on the RF.

No way will you end up with +80kg on the right front
Put a 100kg driver into the drivers seat, some of that weight will be born on the left, say 20%,
and only 60% of the rest will be on the front right, which is 48kg.

Once they adjust the collars to even that out (bars disconnected at this stage and assuming they aren't doing it with ballast) then there would be a ride height disparity between LF and RF. If you have non adjustable drop links and then just re attach the FARB then you will be preloading the bar which would throw the numbers out again. If the bar needs to be neutral at the end step then you would need adjustable drop links so that you could set the links to a neutral position where there was no bar preload and so that your numbers would stay as they were as set by the collars/shims yeah?

Yeah, you need a drop link that is threaded/adjustable at one end

I know that bar preloading is used as a tuning tool on RWD live axles. I had a couple of books back when I had RWD cars that described how RARB preloading can counteract the rear steer that 4 link axles get when chassis torque pushes down through the tyres unevenly on a big launch. I read a thing by Mark Ortiz about how on some circuits that cars can deliberately be set up assymetrically. ie you could put ballast on one side of the car or even 'wedge' it nascar style with slightly different rate springs/preloads if that made the car much faster through one critical corner (ie like coming onto a straight where you could then pass) but didn't trade too much on other corners (like where it was hard for you to be passed or the total time lost off your lap would be comparatively small) ie tuning for the net gain. Makes your head hurt. The engineers that work all that out are freaks.

There are far better solutions to a flawed design being made to handle big horsepower
Probably not relevant to a FWD McPherson strut Polo

I would not go down the path of preloading a swaybar
One obvious problem it would cause at the front of a FWD would be a loss of droop on one side and wheel spin galore

My mates clio will be getting corner weighted soon (its a McStrut + rear twist beam too) so i'll definitely get along to that to see how its done.

I've always hated rear beams but through the Pulsar racing I have observed benefits of that system,
rear camber control on a smooth track is far better than McPherson strut at the rear