I am going to go to stiffer sway bars and have been looking at a lot of options. I'd like to get a little info from those who have made the change, or have information about the aftermarket parts available.

** I just put coilovers on the car with rates of 450F and 337R and took to Mid-Ohio. It handles very well, but I still have a bit more role than I can tolerate. In addition, I want to try and tune out some of the understeer the car still has.

Here is what I have found thus far
Mazdaspeed Front - 27.2mm 4.0 mm wall thickness, Rear 17.3 mm 2.6 mm wall thickness
Racing Beat Front - 32 mm 4.76 mm wall, Rear 19 mm 3.18 mm wall
Agency Power Front - 32 mm Solid, Rear 19mm solid?

Whatever I look at, I want to make sure I can calculate the expected effect to the car's balance.

1) If you have replaced your bars, can you tell me the effect to understeer/oversteer?
2) If you know of other bars available, can you put in the spec's on the bars?

Thanks.

you should look at some adjustable sways.

Here's a thread with a bunch of sway bars listed: http://www.rx8club.com/showthread.php?t=90740

http://www.rx8club.com/showthread.php?t=109096&highlight=biggest+stiffy good discussion of Progress Adjustable front and rear anti-roll bars. I've got them and they are 3-way adjustable in the front and 2-way adjustable in the rear. Along with an appropriate alignment (more negative camber up front) the adjustments should allow you to dial in your desired suspension tune.

Progress is a solid bar and adjustable, most popular bar for the RX-8. Like others have posted you can see quite a bit of the community has these bars. The AP bars are made by Progress so they have the same specs.

We have good stock on the Progress sway bars and are ready to ship.

Hotchkis

I 2nd the Hotchkis sways, love 'em!

Front Sway Bar:
-Lightweight, durable and adjustable 1-5/16� (33mm) hollow
-110% stiffer than the stock sway bar with a rate of 970 lbs/in
-150% stiffer than the stock sway bar with a rate of 1150 lbs/in
-195% stiffer than the stock sway bar with a rate of 1370 lbs/in

Rear Sway Bar:21mm solid
-390% stiffer than the stock sway bar with a rate of 195 lbs/in
-470% stiffer than the stock sway bar with a rate of 250lbs/in
-580% stiffer than the stock sway bar with a rate of 340 lbs/in

go with a broom stick, thats what i use! :suitdance

Yeah we know...:icon_no2:

i did that just for you i8u!!! i knew you were going to show up!! :iamwithst jk

i vote for Progress Technology sway bars.

I've got Tanabe sway bars and LOVE them.
I didn't need the adjustability for my setup but each person's needs / wants are different.

On non-adjustable swaybars the most important issue, IMO, is that they be balanced so as to neutralize the understeer inherent in the OEM bars, as the OP has expressed.

I have found the Racing Beat swaybars to be nicely balanced, even though I do not yet sell them.

I agree with Brice that the Progress Techs are the most popular as they are a quite affordable adjustable swaybar. The rear is actually a 3-way and the front is 6-way (if one wants to be extreme about it). I sell loads of these sets am I am sure he does, too.

^If you really want to get to the extreme, the fronts are 9 way adj and rears are 4 way adj. Then your opening whole other bag of worms in terms of corner balancing and track configuration. :) I'm still a fan of Hotchkis due to their balance and package deal anywhere online for around $350 shipped.

Nic, how are you counting the adjustability on that? Maybe I overlooked something. :dunno:

How'd that silencer work out for ya?

Don't overwork it as I did... I have AP Sways and AP end-links and they are going to be exchanged for something else during this winter.

The sways are to stiff and heavy and the end-links have nothing to do at a streetcar at all and are poorly designed.

Sways are a fine precision tool for doing small adjustments, big sways = bandaid for something else that needs to be fixed.

Nic, how are you counting the adjustability on that? Maybe I overlooked something. :dunno:

How'd that silencer work out for ya?

he means you can use the different holes in different configurations, meaning you dont just have to use the same hole on both sides.

Nic, how are you counting the adjustability on that? Maybe I overlooked something. :dunno:

How'd that silencer work out for ya?

Well, if you think about it, since there are 3 holes on each side of the front sway that give you 9 possible degrees of adjustment...it all depends on how the car is getting set up. Same said for the rears, there 2 holes on each side...giving it 4 possible adj. I learned some about it when dealing with the drivers at the track specically Charles Espenlaub. That guy is a mathematician at heart, he would work out percentages in his head on the different locations we could set up the RB sways we ran...then through in SpeedSource's sway and good god watch out that added a whole other level of setup difficulty, especially with added trouble of adj endlinks.

I would really have to show you in person to make it even somewhat understandable, I barely understand it when talking about.

As for the silencer, man I haven't had a chance to even work on it since school started back up this past week. I'll post up vid and pics when I'm done with it though. Keep an eye on the mail this week. :)

Well, if you think about it, since there are 3 holes on each side of the front sway that give you 9 possible degrees of adjustment...it all depends on how the car is getting set up. Same said for the rears, there 2 holes on each side...giving it 4 possible adj. I learned some about it when dealing with the drivers at the track specically Charles Espenlaub. That guy is a mathematician at heart, he would work out percentages in his head on the different locations we could set up the RB sways we ran...then through in SpeedSource's sway and good god watch out that added a whole other level of setup difficulty, especially with added trouble of adj endlinks.

I would really have to show you in person to make it even somewhat understandable, I barely understand it when talking about.

As for the silencer, man I haven't had a chance to even work on it since school started back up this past week. I'll post up vid and pics when I'm done with it though. Keep an eye on the mail this week. :)


Some of those settings you mention are redundant. For example, forward hole on the left side and rearward hole on the right side is the same relative setting as forward hole on the right side and rearward hole on the left.

Thx for the mail, I could use it. ;)

Some of those settings you mention are redundant. For example, forward hole on the left side and rearward hole on the right side is the same relative setting as forward hole on the right side and rearward hole on the left.

Thx for the mail, I could use it. ;)

not necessarily. it makes the car stiffer in one direction.

^Exactly.

Even while the swaybars float. Interesting.

If you are not looking for super-stiff bars, Whiteline is a good compromise. I'm using them with my KW Variant 3s to good effect, although my focus is autocross. They do have a stronger rear bias than the stock bars do. Two-way adjustable front & rear, although the fronts have room to drill one more pair of holes, (which would be the stiffest setting) f you choose to.

They can be a bit hard to source, however.

Ray, it can get interesting, and that's just the tip of the iceberg as far as vehicle dynamics goes. The variables are endless, but once it's dialed in...man.

And just think, us in the track world have had to setup cars countless times to the drivers needs, and then for some having to setup up a car for multiple drivers? SUX!

We in the track world have had to setup cars countless times to the drivers needs, and then for some having to setup up a car for multiple drivers? SUX!

Suspension setups are always done to meet the drivers' preferences. Otherwise, there would only be one "correct" way to do it.

I'm using Tanabe (F: 30.4 / R: 30.4) and ended up using energy suspension bushings 'cause I found the rubber bushings that came with the bars to be flimsy. The sway bars are non-adjustable and are made of hollow chromoly tubes, each bar is about .5-1.5 lbs. heavier than their stock counterparts. I'm also using a set of Tokico D-specs, GF210 springs and adjustable endlinks from evo-r in conjunction with the sway bars. I've also removed the front strut bar.
I pretty happy with the sway bars and like any other aftermarket sway bars, there's a huge difference in steering response and turning stability compared to stock.
I've experienced some understeer before when I was using stock tires and ever since I've replaced them with 17X9.5 +40 wheels and 245/45 tires, it seems like the understeer has been replaced by a very very slight oversteer. I want to say that the sway bars are somewhat neutral and the over/understeer is caused by some of the suspension settings. but then again, I could be wrong =) ..hth!

just the thread i was looking for, posting so i can come back for research when buying.