Most of us know that sway bars are no longer manufactured for our SC430.

But will the 2nd, 3rd or 4th items listed on this page do the same job? Just as good, better or worse? Or do they serve a different purpose?

Swaybar alternatives

Here is a picture including those items (plus coilovers) :

 

Hi Peter,

IMO, no. Those parts are chassis stiffeners, not sway bars.

Sway bars are torque arms/rods/etc. They are devices that resist turning/twisting when they are asked to do so.

Normally, a sway bar does nothing to change the 'ride' when you are just going down the road. It is when you are turning is when they do 'their thing.'

Usually a 3rd party maker of sway bars will go to a larger than stock diameter to increase the stiffeness/resistance of the bar. Other options would be to use a more exotic material to increase the stiffeness/resistance.

Take a pencil and grab one end with one had & grab the other end with the other hand. Try to twist the two ends in different directions with your hands, that is what a sway bar does; it 'resists' your wanting to twist the pencil.

Usually when you are going to a 3rd party sway bar there are a number of other factors that have to be considered. Will the new bar(s) cause other damage to the car, i.e., will they cause damage to their attachment points on the car; not an unusual thing to have happen. Will they cause damage to the upper suspension areas; usually where the tops of the shocks are attached; this is not unusual.

I used to own a '97 BMW 840Ci and I did just about everything that could be done to the suspension of that car, including 3rd party sway bars and I stiffened the sway bar attachment points on the car. It really made a difference in how it handled. But again, that is a car with a very small market and no one would make sway bars for it. The one guy who did make them really did not know a lot about what he was doing and he just got lucky on how things turned out (IMO).

I hope that this helps but do not hold your breath waiting for sway bars for the SC430's as that ain't going to happen.

IMO the parts in your photo will only cause the car to ride much harsher. They are designed to 'stiffen' the car. These cars were designed (IMO) to be soft riding cars; quite simply, this is what a Lexus is. To try to make a street rod/road racer out of them is a monumental task requiring a tremendous amount of financial investment. In other words (IMO), buy a different type of car.

Jerry Baumchen

PS) I think that you are in California. Go find a shop that does chassis work on road racing cars and talk to them about what each part of your suspension does/does not do. You will learn a lot, believe me.

 

Thanks Jerry!

I was at VIP Auto Salon and APEXi USA 'this past week and they installed my new wheels and coilovers. We got talking about swaybars. They're going to check up and see if there are alternatives to the way bar TM Engineering had. They might start with seeing if aftermarket bars for the other Lexus might fit???

They actually are working on about 3 SC430 drift cars that I saw in their shop. Here is a video link to one of them:
SC430 Drift

Not what I am going after, but very cool!

 

I actually had the whole Tom's LCB kit for about two weeks.
The complete brace set I ordered also included rear control arm brackets and plates that can be ordered addtionally on L-tuned web site although they don't list those parts there.

I didn't install them because my sc has some clearance issue at where shop-made center pipes meet the rear Tom's muffler area.
Sold the whole kit to a local sc430 owner who is just too shy to post his car here (AutoCouture body kit, Tein CS, Behrman fenders, Blitz exhaust and 20" Work wheels...).

Daizen Sway bars and Tom's brace kit serve different purpose.
One is to reduce body roll and the other is to increased chassis rigidity & reduce body flex, but both should enhance handling during aggressive cornering.

According to the 2GS owners, the 6 links make the most difference.