I just ordered Tokico D-SPEC shocks and Tein H.TECH springs, and I'm trying to figure out what sways would go with this combo.

Here's my situation:

My car stock is at the top of the allowed height range, with my front driver's fender to center of the wheel at 15.25". My front camber is at 0 degreees. I'd like to lower the car just a bit, and give up very little of the ride, which is why I went with the H.TECHs, which have just slightly higer than stock spring rates. Hopefully this combo will let me get .8 to 1.0 of camber.

I went with the Tokico's over the Konis because I have read good things about both, but the Tokicos seemed to be a better choice for me due to the rear on-car adjustability. In the past I have done both opentracking and autocross, and I plan on doing a light amount of the same with my 8, but I wasn't willing to go hardcore with super stiff height adjustable coilovers. I understand the tradeoff I have made here, and that stiffer springs would be better for overall handling. I am more interested in high speed handling than autocross if this makes any difference to the sways I will use.

So basically I have upgraded the shocks, and just slightly increased spring rate. It seems like a stiff sway is what I would want in this situation, like a Racing Beat swaybar. I like the Whiteline's adjustability, but I'm not sure if they are stiff enough for my setup. I'm open to just using whiteline bushings on the stock sways and drilling them for higher stiffnes as well, but this would obviously be a lower stiffness than just about anything else.

Any words of wisdom out here? It's much appreciated!

 

I have the racing beat front sway with double adj koni's and it seems like too much for my car. I have stock springs... I think I am going to switch to a smaller front sway like mazdaspeed.

 

Or buy the Racingbeat rear sway also. The RB front bar is to stiff for the OEM rear and just make the car push.

 

^ what he said. the rb front sway is one of the stiffest so you'd be better off getting the rear to match.

 

you could get -1 degree from stock set up, you could get more if you lower a little bit more. racing beat sway bar is the thickest bars avaluble, but you need to get both front and rear for the best set up. I use racing beat sway bars, with koni shocks and stock spring. It is a very good set up, with little roll and very good for street use, a little stiffer but not too much to break your back.

 

Actually, due to my stock spring heights, I can't get -1.0 degrees of camber. You can if you get lucky and have a 14.5" ride height, but not at 15.25".

The racing beats do look like my best bet. They sell Tokicos, and the springs I chose are about the same rate as their springs, so I have that match to go on as well.

The Agency Power bars look nice and matched to one another as well, at about 100% increase in stiffness, and have the advantage of being adjustable as well, but they seem to have you cram their bars under the stock bushings which kind of bugs me.

The Whitelines don't look stiff enough for a weak spring like what I am aiming for.

The Tanabes look crazy with really unbalanced stiffnesses (59% / 175%) unless I am missing something in my calculations or they undertsand the car better than I do.

MazdaSpeed's out because they are clearly designed for something with a much stiffer spring.

 

the japanese like going side way so the tanabe make their rear sway bar bigger.
My ride high is about 15" and I could get -1 degree on it, how many degree is your caster?

 

I haven't pulled the wheels yet to check my caster. I can do the camber check with the wheels on.

From what I have read most people with my ride height can't get -1.0 degrees. Doesn't really matter though- I'll get a mild drop with the Teins and I'm sure I can get semi-agressive street alignment then.

I bet you're right about the Tanabes- those look like drift bars to me. Suprised they don't just have you take the front one off

 

You may like those upgraded shocks and springs with the stock sway bars. If you don't need a very stiff setup and prefer high speed over trying to turn the car, then save your money.

 

Oh- I prefer turning over high speed, what I meant was that the handling I prefer is "high speed" handling, like long sweepers and road courses, not tight AutoX courses. Shocks do more for stiffness on the really fast transitions on an AutoX course than they do on a road course where the suspension has more time to settle.

I am planning to put the shocks/springs on first and try just those, but I really do think a stiffer sway would be good for my handling goals.

 

I carry the Eibach Anti roll kit for the RX8. The front bar would be 27mm diameter and the rear will be 18mm diameter. The information that eibach provides shows they will be around 20% stiffer in the front and rear. The kit is priced at 324.00.