Clubsport_CSi
Well-Known Member
Gentlemen,
I am in need of your expert knowledge - hopefully, you can help me answer a question on which I did not find much information until know.
You may have recognized that I am a huge Alpina fan and as such I have always been on the hunt for adjustable Alpina swaybars for the E9.
I start with a picture to hopefully catch your interest; I have these swaybars in my parts depot:
Several years ago, I had the chance to buy a NOS rear swaybar from a guy who did not finish his resto. It is the one on the bottom in the picture. Unfortunately, he already sold the NOS part for the front some years before...
One day I noticed that H&R was offering a set of adjustable swaybars for the E9. Ordered them. The other day I received an e-mail stating "are you sure you want to order this, they only fit Alpina E9, not regular E9".
I explained I know the E9 quite well and I do not see a rationale for this and gave information on why I think distinguishing between Alpina and regular E9 does not make sense and if the swaybars do not fit regular E9s there must be another reason why.
Next day an H&R engineer sent me a techical drawing of the front swaybar and explained again, that the front swaybar they manufactured for a customers Alpina did not fit the regular E9 of an H&R employee when they tried to test-fit.
It was obvious from the technical drawing that he was right, but none of my follow-up questions on the nature of the customers car was answered and I continued to be confused about this experience.
Again some time later I came across another set of adjustable swaybars, front and rear, for the E9. Bought it, of course.
It turned out that the front swaybar had the same specs as the H&R ones...
It is the upper part in the picture. Rears are very similar.
You can see here the shape and dimensions of the regular Alpina adjustable front swaybar (picture courtesy of Gerhard from the German forums):
I was even more puzzled... I had the impression it was a version for racing cars quite early and thought about dry sump oil pans etc, but it also made no sense given the shape and measures...
And here is my theory:
One day I came across the fact that the whole front suspension of the e.g. Group 2 cars is quite different from street going cars - and that this also includes the swaybars are mounted vice versa to regular cars, i.e., attached to the frame instead of the front axle carrier.
Here an example (thanks a lot, Keshav!):
Can anyone confirm my theory or am I completely wrong and there is another explanation?
Thanks a lot for your support in advance!
Kind regards, Dan
I am in need of your expert knowledge - hopefully, you can help me answer a question on which I did not find much information until know.
You may have recognized that I am a huge Alpina fan and as such I have always been on the hunt for adjustable Alpina swaybars for the E9.
I start with a picture to hopefully catch your interest; I have these swaybars in my parts depot:
Several years ago, I had the chance to buy a NOS rear swaybar from a guy who did not finish his resto. It is the one on the bottom in the picture. Unfortunately, he already sold the NOS part for the front some years before...
One day I noticed that H&R was offering a set of adjustable swaybars for the E9. Ordered them. The other day I received an e-mail stating "are you sure you want to order this, they only fit Alpina E9, not regular E9".
I explained I know the E9 quite well and I do not see a rationale for this and gave information on why I think distinguishing between Alpina and regular E9 does not make sense and if the swaybars do not fit regular E9s there must be another reason why.
Next day an H&R engineer sent me a techical drawing of the front swaybar and explained again, that the front swaybar they manufactured for a customers Alpina did not fit the regular E9 of an H&R employee when they tried to test-fit.
It was obvious from the technical drawing that he was right, but none of my follow-up questions on the nature of the customers car was answered and I continued to be confused about this experience.
Again some time later I came across another set of adjustable swaybars, front and rear, for the E9. Bought it, of course.
It turned out that the front swaybar had the same specs as the H&R ones...
It is the upper part in the picture. Rears are very similar.
You can see here the shape and dimensions of the regular Alpina adjustable front swaybar (picture courtesy of Gerhard from the German forums):
I was even more puzzled... I had the impression it was a version for racing cars quite early and thought about dry sump oil pans etc, but it also made no sense given the shape and measures...
And here is my theory:
One day I came across the fact that the whole front suspension of the e.g. Group 2 cars is quite different from street going cars - and that this also includes the swaybars are mounted vice versa to regular cars, i.e., attached to the frame instead of the front axle carrier.
Here an example (thanks a lot, Keshav!):
Can anyone confirm my theory or am I completely wrong and there is another explanation?
Thanks a lot for your support in advance!
Kind regards, Dan