I have both lower strut bars and the lower lateral bar that goes under the exhaust. After driving some hard corners and getting to know my car again over 10 days and after the drastic changes these things have made, my verdict is that the bars are worth every penny. I need new tires so my verdict may get better soon.

Driving is much more solid with more dampening of uneven surfacing and road pitting. You get more rigidity but you also FEEL everything more profoundly in the steering wheel. When taking hard corners over an expansion joint laden 2 lane ramp, the steering wheel felt like it was shaking out of my hand. I never felt that before these bars! Not that it's great all the time but you are much more connected to the car and the inputs are amplified drastically. I've said it before - the imperfections of the suspension are more prounounced as well but this is a pretty good setup with the Hotchki's.

The issues that are still there include rebounding at higher speed over uneven pavement. The car hops a bit and needs to settle, but the bars probably don't make this worse...they just ensure that you feel it more than you used to. I think the springs are the one thing that keeps this thing from being BMW like. Wondering what a better spring might be at the same height and rate.

I think my Sway setting in Rear needs adjusted to Soft from Med. Anyone want to agree or disagree that the bars help tighten up things in the rear end to the point of changing the balance to oversteer IN ADDTION to the upgraded sway? Need to make sure this thing is OK in the wet. Testing to come...

Tranisitioning is incredible and the car just stays planted. The extra tortional rigidity is welcome and offers a more inspiring and confident experience behind the wheel. This is a cheap way to get a better chassis!

 

It sounds like maybe just the front bar is the way to go?

Considering that you have the rear sway to correct understeer, all you are doing is increasing chassis rigidity - maybe rigidity has diminishing returns after a point?

I was in the process of trying to figure out which rear sway bar (Stillen comes only as set) and which strut bar set to get and I think your post has got me more undecided...

 

I already ordered the bars and should be here towards the end of the month due to it being backordered and the response from partshippers. Your write up was good and solidified my decision on the purchase. Thanks for the review.

 

To clarify my own comment in context of rcdash's comments:

I must add that the bouncy springs in the rear was a problem BEFORE any sway upgrade or GT SPEC install. I've had the sway (even the front hotcki was on for a while) for over 1.5 years and they do much different work than the spec bar. The Spec bar changes the car's rigidity, the sways do not..they simply keep the car flat in corners. Don' forget that the stiffer the sway the less traction you have to work with. I think buttoning up the rigidity and reducing sway BOTH contribute to oversteer. Fortunately my sways are adjustable.

Based on the fact that the M has 1000% better tortional rigidity over the G (or some big # they advertised) there probably is no overdoing it. Maybe tying up the suspension to increase rigidity has it's limit's but a quick sway adjustment will keep traction where it needs to be hopefully. I'm not going to do anything until I get new rubber and test some more. '

I was driving pretty hard last night and tried to just forget about the mods and drive. I am thoroughly impressed with my car right now. Moving through fast curves is so freaking fun. The steering has alot more feedback now and an altered off center feel that is tighter and perhaps quicker to react to inputs.

Steering was an already wonderful aspect of the G that is now so much better. It's really allowing me to accomplish the goal I set out for which was make this thing feel like a BMW 3 series. It doesn't quite feel like a BMW but it sure is better than stock. I think the ride is more communicative than BMW would have intended but the driving is pure joy thanks to just that.

Some mods make the car run better or look better. Some change it to become a better platform. This does the latter and does so rather bluntly as I've had to re-acquaint myself with the car.

 

i have the hotchkis sways front and rear set on med med and i also have the tein basic coilovers. i still seem to have some body roll that i would like ot get rid of. my question is would these help get rid of that problem or what do they really do for me??

 

You may try the Stiffest setting...there can't be much more than that to reduce roll. Like I said...there is a tradeoff. How much traction are you willing to lose to get a flat ride. You may lose a lot of skidpad grip in order to accomplish your goal.

 

I'm on my way to Summit Point(Shenandoah) on Friday to compete in a EMRA Time Trial event. I tried to order GT SPec braces before the event but they are backordered until the end of the month. Hopefully I'll have them before the May Time Trial especially after reading your feedback. That is the feeling that I'm looking for out of my G.

 

Does anyone have feedback on the Stillen rear brace,GT Spec bars,any combination of shocks and springs and swaybars?

 

Ive got a ARc titanium front strut brace, stillen sways, and GT Spec lower bars..car is much stiffer now. I think strut brace and sways made the most differences.

 

Now get Tokoco D-Specs and you will be all set.

 

what are dspecs

 

^ Tokico DSpec - adjustable shocks.