so what swaybars are all you autocrossers using?

 

I currently only have the rear Stillen sway bar installed w/ the stock bar in front. I drove 1 auto-x with it on soft but then I just moved it to medium and I liked it better!

 

Got Hotchkis sways and GT-spec braces delivered this week. Will be putting them on this Sat., so it should hopefully be a dramatic improvement...

 

GT-spec braces? Are those for the strut towers?

 

Eibach : med rear / soft front - seems to work best

 

The GT-Spec braces are bars that connect certain areas of the suspension under the car. There are 3 in total. One in the the lower front suspension tie brace, one lower lateral...right under the differential, last lower tie brace...goes right behind the brace that holds the 2 rear A-arms together. These tighten up the unibody construction....almost like subframe connectors of the 3rd generation Camaro days. Basically these stiffen up the suspension such that there is less of a delay in response time from you turning the wheel to the car reacting and having to overcome the change in lateral movement from left to right.

Hmmmm to make it over simplistic...and to allow me to generalize.... Imagine if you will a horizontal line with a point in the middle. That point in the middle is you in the car...the line ends are the wheels at each side. Whatever angle you tilt the line..say 20 degrees...the line must come back AT LEAST 20 degrees to zero..and then to the new angle "X" to allow for a change of direction. If the suspension is too "loose" then the time that it takes to make this change will be increased because the suspension will have to overcome inertia and the movement already prior commited from the first direction originally taken, then switch over to the new direction inputed. Stiffening the suspension..ie coilovers, swaybars, suspension connectors will greatly decrease the car bodies tendency to roll and pitch under hard turns and abrupt left and right movements. Thus, less roll equals less time it takes for the car to react to a direction change, due to a quicker response,...ability to decrease that time from 20 degrees, to zero...then to new "X" degree will be a faster rate of change. However..making the suspension too stiff will also create a loss of traction and increase in time due to slippage. You will need to keep some "softness" to allow the tires to compress and extract traction from them. This was proven in the 2nd or 3rd generation Mustang Cobras. Where they actually "softened" the suspension versus the regular GT and actually got a faster time around the track due to increased traction..given to them from the suspension allowing to work and apply correct amounts of weight upon the tires through the suspension.

Does this make sense? Hope so. Sorry to all the engineers and physic majors......cant remember all the correct terminologies to explain the ideas in my head.

Bad news....this is a quote from one of the sponsors:

"I've just been notified by GTSpec that the rear lateral brace will not fit on a G35 Coupe that has a stock exhaust on it. It WILL clear dual pipe exhausts - like Injen style exhausts.

Front and rear tie braces fit fine. Thanks all. sorry if this is bad news for any of you... and sorry we don't sell Injen exhausts! ;o)
__________________
Dave
www.partshippers.com"





Oh and to answer the post....I use Cuscos. Others I know use Nismos, and Hotchkis.

 

drifters benefit from these. they're good bang for the buck imo.

 

Yeah I just found that out too Well, I'll get it up on a lift and see how it goes. 4 out of 5 metal bars isn't bad...lol...

 

One these day's I'll have to construct a unibody brace. I can feel the car get twitchy all the time when I'm sliding out on cambered turns and high speed cresting sweepers. it's a traight...but I'd like to eliminate the twitch feeling I get from sliding the car around.

 

Why did you like it more? I would have thought a stiffer front end would allow you to put the power down sooner on exit.

 

I got the hotchkis front and rear on medium. The car feels much more neutral now near the limit at medium speed and slaloms. At low speed hairpins the car still understeers at the turn in, but what can we expect from a 3500lb car anyhow.

I tried the hard setting on the rear but that caused too much oversteer and snap oversteer. I don't know about the front tower brace bar, a fellow 350Z owner told me it's better to run without the brace since the more flexible front end gives our cars more neutral handling.

 

If u guys are looking for rear/front sway bars i'm trying to get rid of my 350EVO brand new sways which I'm getting rid of because I won't be running the coupe in STX anymore, PM me for details

 

When I only had the rear bar installed and set to Medium, the back end seemed more planted coming out of turns, without throttle oversteer. I have not auto-x'ed my car w/ both f/r bars installed yet. Can't wait!

 

Good to know. I guess maybe a stiffer rear is transfering some weight to the outside rear tire from the front end of the car.