[grumpysnapper]

Finally had a chance to have my suspension/driving guru take a long hard test drive with the custom Öhlins TTX/TPX dampers, over the sorts of roads that they were developed for.
After returning from the drive loop, he hopped out and said "look the dampers are absolutely amazing...but somethings not quite right".
My heart sank.
But on hearing that I had kept a hollow 18mm adjustable rear bar fitted, he smiled and said that's your problem..."just throw it away and refit the standard bar!".
Two days later on the same loop, he jumped out with a huge smile and said "that car is an absolute delight....I just wanted to keep driving all week"
Basically the new dampers and springs can do much more of the 'work', much more precisely, and independently from each other.
Stiffer sway bar, less compliance.
So the moral of the story is that even 'mega' dampers can be compromised by a sway bar. My friends view is that ideally in a perfect world you should not need a sway bar, and that it is in itself a very agricultural solution to what is usually a complex problem... in other words its at its most useful at a fine tuning level.
(NB this is only relevant to this car's (rough, fast) road driven development, I'm sure there are many other thoughts and practices with sway bars that are also legitimate)