Should I buy a custom front sway bar or no?

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steverife
Posts: 9897
Joined: Fri Dec 05, 2003 9:55 am
Location: Knoxville, TN

Should I buy a custom front sway bar or no?

Post by steverife »

Current set up:

- 2003 MR2 Spyder - ES prep
- Koni yellow inserts
- 1" Addco front sway bar

The season has gone fairly well so far. I had the 2nd fastest time day 2 at Dixie in a huge class, 3rd for the weekend. I've been in the mix at locals. I was 6th at Blytheville, but I got beat by 5 champion/podium guys, so I don't feel THAT bad about that result.

I've been mostly happy with the handling of the car. When I tried the Rivals, I started have thoughts that I needed more front bar, but I added some front rebound and dropped tire pressures and was really happy with the car last weekend. I'm still at about 3/4 stiff on front shock. Who knows what it will be like at Lincoln/Toledo, though?

One of my class competitors has built a run of 1.25" hollow front bars. Bar is $300 (bare bar, would need to add my own brackets, bushings, and maybe build end links) and I can pick one up at Spring Nats next week. Addco bar is 11.5 lbs, this bar is 5 lbs.

Based off his math:
- OE bar - 185 lbs/in
- 1" Addco - 482 lbs/in
- this 1.25" custom bar - 463 lbs/in softest, 572 lbs/in middle setting, 700 lbs/in in the stiffest setting

Some people have added a hole to the Addco bar that I use that would get you to around 596 lbs/in. This was done to the car that Pallotta won in, but I'm not sure which setting was generally used.

I don't feel like I need it at this point, but I'd hate to feel like I need more bar down the road and miss on this opportunity. Should I buy or no?
'16 FRS - PSTX 97
thrdeye
Posts: 14085
Joined: Fri Dec 05, 2003 12:31 pm
Location: Lenoir City

Re: Should I buy a custom front sway bar or no?

Post by thrdeye »

For $300 sure go for it. Then test it.

FWIW, my car liked a lot less front bar on the BFG. But our motors are on different ends :D
Chris Harp
2009 Mazda RX-8 | 2018 Toyota Tundra | 2011 BMW M3
steverife
Posts: 9897
Joined: Fri Dec 05, 2003 9:55 am
Location: Knoxville, TN

Re: Should I buy a custom front sway bar or no?

Post by steverife »

That's probably more like $425-450 once I do bushings and build end links --- though I hate my endlinks and need to redo them anyway.

With the RE71R's, I was actually wishing I had less front bar. I would love a 1" (or maybe even smaller) adjustable where I could go both up or down from where I am, as opposed to just up. I can't imagine a scenario where I want 50% more bar stiffness than I have now.
'16 FRS - PSTX 97
JohnSmith
Posts: 119
Joined: Fri Feb 26, 2010 11:34 pm

Re: Should I buy a custom front sway bar or no?

Post by JohnSmith »

I was really happy with speedway engineering bars mounted in some delrin/brass bushings on my miata. It is a really light weight setup, zero binding ever, and makes it super friendly to change sway bar rates around to almost anything. It did require making my own mounting setup. I never drilled different holes in the arms to change rate, just use different middle sections so the end link geometry can always be the best. Some guys use bar mounts that can move fore/aft so they can use different arm hole locations without compromising anything.
83 AS 2008 Corvette Z06
31 STR Miata
RIP: 13 ASP 2002 911
RIP: 13 ST 1991 Saab 900
thrdeye
Posts: 14085
Joined: Fri Dec 05, 2003 12:31 pm
Location: Lenoir City

Re: Should I buy a custom front sway bar or no?

Post by thrdeye »

yeah that's why I got the karcepts bar.

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Chris Harp
2009 Mazda RX-8 | 2018 Toyota Tundra | 2011 BMW M3
steverife
Posts: 9897
Joined: Fri Dec 05, 2003 9:55 am
Location: Knoxville, TN

Re: Should I buy a custom front sway bar or no?

Post by steverife »

I liked the bar I had on my CRX, but I'm definitely not looking to blaze trails in the Spyder community.
'16 FRS - PSTX 97
steverife
Posts: 9897
Joined: Fri Dec 05, 2003 9:55 am
Location: Knoxville, TN

Re: Should I buy a custom front sway bar or no?

Post by steverife »

Revisiting this....

Pretty happy with how the car handles on concrete (it is a pushy/loose mess locally), but I need to make the car faster and 225's seems to be the way to go. ...which means I think I might need more front bar.

...which means that I guess I'm going to look into figuring out how to do a Nascar bar.
...and possibly getting the current bar drilled out.
'16 FRS - PSTX 97
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