rx8 - smooth!

Hi Guys,

I have ordered the Racing Beat sway bars for my car to improve turn in on the car. This is the first modification I have done to the car (or any other) I will let you know how they are in the next few days after they are fitted.

I have been impressed by the Racing Beat company. If Mazda trust them to develop upgraded suspension packages for their cars thats good enough for me.

I realise that the car will stiffen up I am just hoping that it doesn't loosen my fillings!

Will report in due course.


Steve

emack

Good to hear.......you'll find them sensational! You may also want to consider Racing Beats sway bar end links as their sway bars put additional pressure on the standard end links.

Are you installing them yourself?

AMG

Excellent choice in modification. You'll find the sway bars will dramatically improve your cornering, the car as it is has too much body roll, the sway bars will fix this. Your fillings are safe, the sway bars won't have any effect on ride quality.

But as mentioned do change your end links

rx8 - smooth!

Thanks for your input AMG & Emack

Yes I am getting the end links as well as the sway bars as I have also seen that the stock end links may have trouble coping with the additional stress that the Racing Beat bars put on them.

I am getting them installed as I have never done anything like this before.

I am really looking forward to the crisper responses to steering inputs.

AMG

Sway bar changes are not difficult if you are confident with your manual dexterity. Give it a go......it's rewarding

RIC SHAW

guys .all good but you dont have to go OS to get bars.
we got them here.

pricer01

Ric

What do you recommend and how much can I expect to pay??

Hymee

iTrader: (1)

Steve,

I saw your bars the the other day

They look very high quality. New link ends and everything. Red to match your car as well. Felt nice and light is if tubular - but I think that might have only been the front bar.

Good stuff!

Cheers,
Hymee.

rx8 - smooth!

Hymee,

I saw them this morning when I dropped the car in for the installation - they certainly do look very high quality.

I cannot wait to get the car back this afternoon to check out the difference.

Will post the "RX8 - Smooth!" review in the next day or so after I have done some evaluations.

BTW I was talking to friend of yours the other day when I went out to Qld Raceway to do some spectating. It sounds like Mrs Hymee is not keen on the idea of you using the new toy on the track!

Regards


Steve

rpm_pwr

So that was your car at QR on the weekend steve? I didnt check the plates, I just assumed it was Hymee's.

-pete

rx8 - smooth!

That was me Pete.
I didn't realise that you were there. I might catch up with you next time I go which will be in March. I am in Tassie in February.

Regards

Steve

rx8 - smooth!

I have now had these for a few hours and these are my opinions for what they are worth:

Ride Comfort

Stock Sway Bars 8.5 out of 10
RB Sway Bars 7.5 out of 10

comments

At first I could no detect any difference in the ride comfort at all. The only real difference is when the car hits undulations that cause the whole car to move from side to there is a firmer feeling.
The car does not feel that it "floats" as much. Some people may not like this but to me the whole car feels more tied down. Going over normal small bumps there is no difference from stock bars. My biggest worry about making this change was that the car would become a bone shaker. I did not need to worry.

Cornering

Stock Sway Bars 8.5 out of 10
RB Sway Bars 9.75 out of 10

comments

The immediate turn in response of the car is more immediate. The car stays flatter as you start to load it up on a corner. I haven't had the chance yet to really push the car yet with the new bars but my feeling is that the flatter attitude of the car provides with more confidence to keep exploring the awesome limits that are there. It will probably be a track day before I really do this! When you are cornering there is a lot more feedback from the car so you can feel whther to keep pushing or back off.

Overall

This is how the car should be.

I hope this gives everyone a feel for this modification and helps them to decide whether it is for them.

Steve

Hymee

iTrader: (1)

Steve,

Great review!

Sorry I didn't make it out last Saturday. I would have made a point of catching up with you and Pete. The LS1 guys you spoke to are a good bunch.

Cheers,
Hymee.

pricer01

Steve

If its not too direct a question, can you please share the details of costs.

Ta

rob

Spin9k

This recent thread was helpful to me, lots of good info on affects of these mods:

https://www.rx8club.com/showthread.p...threadid=20006

rx8 - smooth! ... the thing I am wondering is how is the BALANCE affected by your mod. With front bar only, understeer will increase, while roll will decrease. So it would seem that while the car would feel 'flatter' during cornering, that at limit it will understeer more. Add the rear sway and hopefully that will even things out again, given that RB 'balanced' the effect of their sway bars (hopefully?).

That would seem to make your mod a win-win addition, or so I thought too. BUT those on the thread mentioned above generally seem to say that springs should be used to make cornering better (flatter), then sway bars added as a 'fine-tuning' tool for over-under steer and that all these (ideally) should be adjustable to allow that level of tuning to the equation.

So, my take, is that what appears simple, actually gets pretty sophisticated, real quick as you mess with the suspension like this.

I was hoping for a "plug-and-play" solution (like what you have done) and will be very interested if you get out on a track or skidpad to test the result at closer to the limit, and in a repeatable way.

Great stuff, enjoy and tell us how it goes after the new wears off!! :D :D

rx8 - smooth!

Here in Australia it is not cheap. The set of bars & endlinks were approx $700.

The installation cost me $240 plus $70 for a front & rear wheel alignment. If like me you opt to get the installation done you are basically looking at a grand for this installation.

All I can say is I have been out driving again today and the car just feels so right. My wife even commented on it!

Steve

rx8 - smooth!

Spin 9k

Firstly in the limited (road) testing I have done the car certainly appears to have retained its balance with the plus that as the car is sitting flatter that you can feel what is happening more easily.

I agree in an ideal world springs should be changed if you want the ultimate improvement in performance. In my case I simply wanted the car to corner flatter without interfering too much with the day to day ability of the car to soak up bumps. From the reseach I did Racing Beat appeared to be a trustworthy company and I took the plunge! So far so good for me. The real test of course will be when I take the car to the track. I will be doing this at the end of March. I stress I was not looking for a radical change in the car and if this is what you want this is not the way to go. As stated earlier I simply wanted flatter cornering and this has been achieved.