What are the best front&rear sway bars for a NB8A??

marky210 · Postby **marky210** » Thu Jan 25, 2007 6:42 pm

What are the best front and rear sway bars for my NB8A that are fully adjustable????

Wanting to upgrade them from the stock ones and wanted to know from you all what are really good and work the best for a hard dríven street car??

Ive currently got KYB AGX's with ground controll coilover kit fitted and the car sits pretty low.... not that this might help but thought id add it in to get the best opinion on what will work the best for me:D

Cheers, Mark

Garry · Postby **Garry** » Thu Jan 25, 2007 7:57 pm

Anthing thicker than about 25mm for the front bar and you may have issues with cracking of the mounting brackets. Though Racing Beat (I think) in the US make a support thingo to strengthen the mounts so that you can run a thicker bar.

I have stock springs/Koni's on my car with a 24mm front Whiteline bar and a custom made KMac 14mm rear bar. I found the 16mm Whiteline rear bar made things a bit tailly for my liking. I'm extremely happy with the balance I have now. YMMV

marky210 · Postby **marky210** » Sat Jan 27, 2007 4:16 pm

Thanks for your help Garry

greatly appreciated

So is it better to go the thickest you can?

If i go say like 25mm front and custom make thicker,stronger mounts would that be worth it for a street car or not?

or would it be best to go the thickest i can get off the shelf that utilize the stock mounts...

Sorry bought all the questions i just want to get a better understanding about sway bars and improving them on a stock cars and what are the pros and cons to look out for

Cheers,Mark

Garry · Postby **Garry** » Sat Jan 27, 2007 4:33 pm

No idea. Depends what you want from the car and what spring rates you are using. I wanted to keep the stock springs but thought the car had too much roll so I beefed up the roll bars. If you decided to use higher rate springs then you probably dont need as thick roll bars. Some guys in the US use very think front bars and no rear bar at all for auto crossing. I think this gives them the fast turn in and better transition that they need for the tight manouvers in auto cross. It's all down to what you use the car for and personal preference.

Be aware though that you can have to much roll stiffness and loose grip rather than gain it. Especially in the wet.

marky210 · Postby **marky210** » Sat Jan 27, 2007 4:39 pm

Thanks so much for that Garry

Im gunna look right into it and ask around on what would be the best for me. Will be giving a few people a call on monday who work with suspension and see what they reconmend

Thanks again mate

Cheers,Mark

Postby **Okibi** » Sat Jan 27, 2007 7:39 pm

Some will tell you not to put an aftermarket (heavier) rear sway on because it can cause chronic oversteer.

I need more track time to test mine but i'm running Racing Beat sways both front and rear.

The heavier rear sway bar heaps on my NB8A because I have an open diff, it stops the inside wheel lifting as much.

Postby **Okibi** » Sun Feb 11, 2007 9:16 pm

Might be more low speed understeer, less at speed.

Postby **Okibi** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 10:29 pm

For all NB models?

There's a few articles where they run their own rear sways on the NB8A.

StanTheMan · Postby **StanTheMan** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 11:15 pm

Okibi wrote:Some will tell you not to put an aftermarket (heavier) rear sway on because it can cause chronic oversteer.

I need more track time to test mine but i'm running Racing Beat sways both front and rear.

The heavier rear sway bar heaps on my NB8A because I have an open diff, it stops the inside wheel lifting as much.

well....don't listen to them i took that advice & My NA6 started underseering like a pig.
I had to muck around with damping & tyre pressures to get it back to reasonable close to neutral.

I fitted a standard NB8A front sway & left the rear as it was. I now have a rear NB8A sway lined up for when the new bushes go in.

some racers even go without a rear sway depending on weather conditions......not sure exactly why but i wouldn't do that on the road.

Racers do know thier stuff....but some things just don't translate from racetrack to road.

manga_blue · Postby **manga_blue** » Tue Feb 20, 2007 3:52 pm

All your answers are here - if you can understand it!!!

Tab to your model, work on the row most like yours, play around with the spring rates (in imperial of course) and sway bar thicknesses/types (in mm) until you get a Front Roll Couple (FRC) between of 58-60% for neutral handling. > 60% = understeer, < 58% = oversteer.

http://www.fatcatmotorsports.com/FCM_MSDS_v7_1.xls

manga_blue · Postby **manga_blue** » Tue Feb 20, 2007 4:00 pm

... so, by my calcs, vjl, stock of 22/11 on 7/6 springs looks almost perfect at 58.1% (neutral with maybe a touch of oversteer) unless you want to go to stiffer bars, in which case you'd need to increase both.