Paimon could have just played with his tire pressures and accomplished the same thing. (Just kidding I don't know what I'm talking about)

 

That doesn't really make sense... going stiffer on the rear bar will cause more oversteer, aka better rotation.

Going to a softer bar should have made your problem of the car not rotating worse.

 

Thats what I thought... ^ I have more over steer and the car rotates more in the rear.. At this point I like it.. And I want to feel a little more if I can.

 

Sorry was at work when I wrote this. You are completely right, my car would oversteer with my stiff rates and big rear bar. Made her too tail happy on the track

 

reviving this thread. Use to have S1 with RB bars front and back. felt pretty neutral on the track..

just got S2 with stock suspension, which sway bar set will best compliment S2 stock suspension for semi dedicated track use and occasional weekend driving?

 

What is wrong with the car currently that causes you to feel you need new bars? I am doing 10-12 track days per year on my stock sways, and am not inclined to change them. The car is quite neutral as it is.

It is my opinion that many people tend to over-bar their cars. Then they scratch their heads when they can't feel what the suspension is doing.

 

I agree, stock is tight.. Unless I had Major power upgrades, I wouldn't go messing with the suspension.)

 

well, first I drive flat out :-), and when you run track tires you get to the point where you have to much grip and roll for the stock suspension in the corners resulting in the much higher wear on the outsides of the tires. more camber helps with this as well but you are limited what you can do with camber on stock suspension, hence me going to stronger sways...

 

I went with Hotchkis bars because the dimensions indicated that they were about as stiff as the Progress/AP bars, but a little lighter. BUT I also went straight from stock suspension to bars and coilovers in one step as I was also going to be using 255 wide R compound tires on track. For a dual purpose street/track car, having softer springs and stiffer bars (soft and stiff being relative terms), should be more civilized than stiff springs and soft bars while giving similar handling.

You'll find no shortage of people advocating for the superiority of either setup and both can work well. I also felt that the car handled beautifully in stock form, but it also handles beautifully in it's new track setup.

 

OK. That's good info (except for the bouncing car thingy). I'm afraid I can't be of much help, because I run stiffer springs and softer bars. There is not much difference between the S1 and S2 suspensions. The main difference is the rear spring perch location.

Here is a good discussion on sways:

https://www.rx8club.com/series-i-whe...ummary-242324/

 

if I understood you correctly you are running stock sways with bilstein/eibach combo?

 

I am on Bilstein PSS9s, which have spring rates of 370F / 240R. While not stiff by true track setup criteria, they are stiffer than most aftermarket springs.

 

this might attract your atttention
www . ptcruiserlinks . com/forum/wheels-tires-suspension/47695-question-you-all-rear-anti-sway-bar-kits.html

 

Agreed,

The suspension is a system. springs and sways are very related. If you have factory springs (and most of the aftermarket springs are in that category) you can only control roll with heavy bars. The PSS9 above does a lot of the roll control with springs, which means smaller bars are needed. My coil overs are 9K/6K (500/330). Car stays incredibly flat, I have a progress tech on minimum in the front and the rear one is in the garage. Car was very tail happy with the rear bar attached. Car is now much more sensitive to inputs, but that is a driver problem..

 

Suspension is always an interesting tuning item. Lots of variables involved and like stated above everything needs to work together. Driving style and type of tire also come into play. I have the PSS9's on my 8 as well, but I am running Hotchkis bar up front and the whiteline bar in the rear. I am on 245 RS3 street tires and this setup seems to be great so far for what I like for auto x and track days at Socal tracks.

By track tires I think you mean R-compound, which if that is the case you would probably want heavier bars than stock since those have much higher grip levels over street tires

 

wonder what effect would have just adding the bigger front bar on stock suspension, will I get to much rear grip resulting in understeer?

Whiteline has front non adjustable bar on clearance for $76 :-), ideally you want adjustable bars front and rear so you can tune the cars handling a bit..

Whiteline Suspension Parts - Part Number BMF49 - Front Sway Bar - 27mm - Liquidation!

or should I bite the bullet and get the full hotchkis set, also not sure if these are overkill even on the stock suspension?
Hotchkis Sport Sway Bar Set UNKNOWN

also nice video about sway bars:

 

If you are looking for sway bars we have a few options for you

Total Automotive Performance Suspension Upgrade Shop



Agency Power Front 32mm /AP-RX-8220

Agency Power Rear 19mm/AP-RX8-230

Eibach Sway Bars /5544.310/5544.312/5544.320

Whiteline Front Adjustable Sway Bar BMF49Z

Whiteline Rear Adjustable Sway Bar BMR77Z

USE PROMO CODE RX8 for member discount

 

There are many schools of thought on suspensions, one is to use (relatively speaking) soft springs and stiff sways, whereas another says the opposite, to use soft sways and stiff springs. Both can get you equal speed and there are tuners praising each setup. For street use, softer springs is probably better, then over speed bumps and such, it'll ride better. Stiffer sways can make uneven bumps, like potholes worse and they'll generally upset the car more than with softer sways, but if those softer sways are paired with stiffer springs that would still cause increased upset over a full factory soft setup. A lot comes down to driver preference really.

 

Your setup has a stiffer front spring and bar, plus it eliminates the rear bar too. Obviously you have something else going on with your overall setup that requires much more bias to the front roll stiffness. Apparently there's more at play here than your comment suggests.