whoneedspistons

iTrader: (2)

i am in the market to buy the zeals here really soon... i am curious what sway bars are best coupled with them... i plan on using the agency adjustable endlinks... but i havent seen to many people specify what sway barsw they are using?

willhave8

Not an expert but it seems sway bars are something you need to choose based on what 'issue' you are trying to improve. Meaning, if you are refined in your use of the car and understand how all the suspension parts work together, you can make more informed decisions.

For me, I went with the Racing Beat front and rears... Why? Because they were reported to help 'flatten' out the car in the turns without dramatically impacting the ride. That is what I have found. However, since I have been spending more and more time on a track and learning from this forum, it appears to me that my front bar may be contributing to a tendancy for the front to push or understeer under 'hard' cornering.

If you just want new sways there are quite a few choices. The RBs, Whitelines and Mazdaspeeds come to mind.

scsi

this is what any sway bar will do, not just Racing Beat

it IS indeed important to understand what you want out of them though. first, what do you do with the car? generally, if you plan to autox you might not want overly stiff bars as they may just be more distruptive. perhaps try mazdaspeed or maybe even agency power in this case. if you road race (on a track of course) then stiffer would be more suitable such as racing beat or perhaps whiteline. if you plan to drift, i think youd want bars as stiff as you can get, and even perhaps stiffer in the rear.

another factor you would consider would be oversteer and understeer. this is a little more difficult because there are so many other factors which contribute to these such as spring rates (if you have aftermarket coilovers or springs), shock adjustment, tire pressures, staggered wheel sizes, staggered tire sizes, etc. as you can see, the rest of your setup can help you decide. for example, if you simply must have staggered wheel and tire widths, you will likely have a tendency to understeer. you might want to find a set of bars (or maybe even mix and match bars, though i havent heard of people doing this, at least not with this car) to compensate. this means the ratio of front to rear stiffness is smaller. i hear tanabe makes a setup for such an application but im not sure.

i hope that made sense, and that it is all correct. if its not correct me somebody! sorry if its too general too.

good luck!

whoneedspistons

iTrader: (2)

that makes a lot of sense... the car is goign to be made for a mixture of autox and road racing (leanign more to road racing).... i noticed agancy has a nice set that are adjustable... maybe they are the best app.... the mods i will have when i get the sways would be the zeal coilover either the x or xs.... stickies on stock rims (what i race on), and strut and undercarriage bracing

tmak26b

Those suspension are stupid, they are too stiff for any roads other than brand new pavement. You might want to learn more about suspension before you start changing things, you might end up losing traction because your tires are being pulled off the ground.

Also if you notice, no real road racers use zeal on their suspension. Even most time trialers don't even touch those things. I can tell you they are too stiff for most autox anyway.

Sway bar is used on cars with soft springs, not on a car with hard suspension.

dannobre

iTrader: (3)

Another informative post

Maybe you should learn a few things before you spout off........

James...you will want to pick the sways to match the springrate.....the AP adjustables are probably a good choice...cause they give you some adjustment. You will want that if you plan on doing both track days and autocross...the setups will be different

whoneedspistons

iTrader: (2)

i have done research my friend, in fact, i have had two other competitive cars in drag racing and autox.... but i am not claiming to know it all and i am always willing to hear some advice thus the post... do you think you could be a little more informative elaborate a bit?? i would
really appreciate it...

zaglo6204

i came over here to see if i could give some input, but instead i got a laugh.

& ohhh what a laugh!!!

TeamRX8

iTrader: (25)

it's just a swaybar, just because it comes from japan with a cool name dressed up in marketing schtick doesn't make it any better or worth paying more for ...

dannobre

iTrader: (3)

I think it's funny that you think the springrate is too stiff on the Zeals

Maybe ask Speedsource what they run on there GT car for springs LOL.....

TeamRX8

iTrader: (25)

if you're talking to me, I didn't say anything about spring rate that was someone else

800 lbs/in front & rear with a 1.25" OD x .25" wall adjustable speedway-style front bar and modified rear bar that is slightly stiffer than OE ... dedicated track car on race tires

whoneedspistons

iTrader: (2)

what do you mean... i was asking what sway bar to run with the zeals.... i mentioned agency because of the adjustability and the thickness... if you have somethign that you would like to inform me about please do

dannobre

iTrader: (3)

Hell no...you have good info and advise....

I was talking to the I***T from above that thinks the Zeals are too stiff for the track

tmak26b

Have you ever been on the track? Do you know what it takes for a relatively stock car to run 700-800lbs springs? Get a grip, oh well, you wouldnt have any grip with 700lbs springs.

Are SpeedSource using Zeals on their Grand-Am cars? They had a different sticker on their car.

dannobre

iTrader: (3)

With your wealth of knowledge......

OH..never mind...hardly worth the effort fighting with an unarmed opponent

Speedsource doesn't use Zeals.....Nobody said that they did. All we did say was that there are a lot of MUCH stiffer springs out there being used than Zeals...

This discussion was also about sway bars I believe.......

TeamRX8

iTrader: (25)

sorry, I misread and thought you were asking about Zeal swaybars

as per tmak's earlier post, nobody serious runs Zeal in the US short of drifter/street wannabes so I doubt anyone knowledgable can provide an informed answer, that never stopped anyone from posting though ...

whoneedspistons

iTrader: (2)

well ok, so are you guys saying that the zeals are not really usefull for the applications i expressed interest in?

scsi

they dont seem to be common or used at all in professional racing. for road racing in general they are probably fine. they might be a tad to stiff for autox, and possibly uncomfortable to daily drive on. thats all what i gather anyway.

dannobre

iTrader: (3)

I think the general consensis is that there aren't enough being used to have valid data.

Talk to TeamRX-8...he might have some connections to those nice koni's that he runs on his car

tmak26b

Sway bar goes together with springs. If you want to get a sway bar, you have to determine what springs you want to run. Before you decide on what to get, you have to see what you want to do. How competitve do you want to be and how much do you want to spend.

I have first hand experience with the Zeals on an Intergra and Civic, they were so hard that it was nearly undriveable. I had them at local autox and Pocono, that had to be one of the worst set of coil overs.

Please save yourself some embarassment, don't compare your car to a purposely built race car. What they do to their cars are completely different than your street driven car.

Honestly, decide on what you want first before you start blowing money left and right. A set of stock suspension is better than a badly put together suspension.

mysql101

+1

I agree. And since you're nearby, I can show you what the ride with RB front and rear sways is like if you wanted, whoneedspistons.

dannobre

iTrader: (3)

Finally some information along with the usual attitude

I agree....you need to think about what you want to do.....

your usage, spring rate, damping, sway rate, alignment, tires, pressures.....all play a part in making choices.

Just because you didn't like the springrate on the Integra setup doesn't mean the Zeal RX-8 setup is just as bad. It might be...but that's a biig ASSumption

A lot of us are running very high springrate and heavy sway setups........we take the huge compromise on the street because we track the car a lot and very hard......don't you assume that we aren't approaching ST class type setups. TeamRX-8's STU setup for autocross has had him trying many different setups with sways, springs etc....

The stock suspension is very soft with a lot of body roll on the track, thank you very much......been there done that a few years ago

You will find that if your information does the talking, you will get your point across without looking like an *** in the process

scsi

he already told us what he wants to do with the car..

tmak26b

Simply by saying I want to do this and that doesn't help much. If you want to get into racing competitively, you need to decide what class you need to run and how much you want to spend. A lot of people wants to autox and do track events, but it doesn't mean they will be competitve. You cant expect to win AM with just a set of stiff suspension nor do you expect to set track records by changing just one or two things.

Autoxing and track are not drag racing, most people are bound by rules if they want to be competitive. People get way too tangled up with the street racing and JDM crap. Before you decide on how to mod a car, you might want to start with the driver.

scsi

"the best way to go faster is to tighten the nut behind the wheel"

"if it feels like you're on rails, you aren't driving fast enough"

driving skill is the most important thing, but that is not what he asked. hes looking for opinions on some products, not for someone to question his driving capabilities.