TRACKBAR, anyone here run one?

BTW, if you bother to caclulate it out, the lateral movement of the end of a 4' long panhard rod/track bar with + or - 3.5" of vertical movement is <0.15" which is <5/32" of lateral movement. So the idea that it will produce a lot of side motion as the suspension moves up and down is a false perception that is taken way out of proportion. You get far more side flex in the tire sidewalls than that!

And I'll repeat here again....

There is another critical function of the track bar if you are really engineering for handling. It allows you move the rear roll center up and down and thus change the roll axis of the car, which can be used to help tune understeer/oversteer. With the standard leaf spring setup, the roll center is cannot be moved without changing shackles or re-arching leafs, and is usually higher than desired. If you use rather loose spring bushings in the rear springs and hard bushing or heim joints in the panhard rod, the panhard rod takes over all of the side-to-side locating function and the rear roll center is determined by the panhard rod settings, not the leaf spring connections to the chassis.

As for the panhard bar tearing up the body, that is another false perception. A number of unibody cars have had these as stock items; all of the Opel GT's, Kadetts, and 50 series unibodies had them. I have raced these for years and years in rough conditions, slamming against banks, rocks, and logs, and the panhard support or surrounding body work never bent or budged. Any decent amount of load spreading and thought in attachment will avoid any issues.

If you have never used them or raced with them, I can understand how the perceptions can get out of hand, but it makes little sense to predict doom and gloom on such an item if you have not used it.