Not flaming either, but I would be interested to hear your take on how the sway bars slow the car down.

On my 544 the swaybars really transformed the handling. Before it had major understeer - you'd go into a corner, the car would lean WAAAAY over, and the front tires would squeal like little piglets told the truth about sausage. Perhaps its just the 544 but large lean angles tilt the front tires to a fair degree as well - maning I was putting most of the cornering forces on the outside oedge of the front tire.

With the sway bars the car leans much less - which means it will react much quicker (and as a bonus gets bounced around less by crosswinds and truck slipstreams on the highway). The understeer has been banished, and the car is much more balance with more of the cornering pushed to the rear. The rear end can even be prodded into a little slide under hard cornering - before it was impossible as so much of the balance was towards the front. And the flatter cornering angles keep the outside front tire more vertical.

My impression is just the more equal distruibution of cornering forces between the front and rear tires is making it faster.

Now stiffer springs, of course, can often make a car slower on real world (i.e. rough) roads.