Finally installed my mazdaspeed suspension in time for the next auto-x. All I can say is wow. Car has almost no understeer (unless you enter a turn too fast). Easy to drive too, the car is very neutral. The lack of body roll is very evident and slalomn's are now taken much faster. Seems like I have to use less steering input also but that may have been my imagination. In short, excellent suspension set up. More neutral that stock, I felt that I could get more power oversteer (lift throttle but about the same) however any slidiing was easily controlled.

-Jeff S.

 

as far as the suspension goes did you get the complete suspension (sways/strut bars) or just spring/shocks?

 

Honestly. How different is the ride on the street?

 

It is the complete suspension, springs, shocks, and swaybars. The ride difference on the street is noticable but I don't think it's uncomfortable at all. I can see how some people might. My Dad rode in the car recently, he didn't mention a stiff ride, and he's just the kind of person I would expect to.

-Jeff S.

 

Cool, thanks for the info, Scooby.

 

excuse me for the noob question: i know what a strut bar is and what its for, but can you tell me about the 'sway' bar please? i have no idea what this is (maybe a pic might help )
thanks

 

sway bar is much more important than a strut bar!

the short answer is a sway bar resists body roll during cornering.

it is a spring that goes between the right and left sides of the front and/or rear suspension arms. it acts to counter body roll during cornering- that is compressing one side of the suspension acts to compress the other side also. but it transmits only part of the compression, which is measured by the torsional resistance of the sway bar. that is, its spring action is in twist.

you could also resist the body roll with stiffer springs, but the sway bar is mounted so that is both wheels move up (say as in hitting a bump) it contributes no stiffness. this improves the ride.

note that 'sway bar' is really short for "anti-sway bay' or 'anti-roll bar'.

james

 

thanks Ophitoxaemia for your time. this is so enlightening! you are the man!

 

How much ride height did you loose with the new setup?

I ask since we live in the country and have long gravel driveway and any lowering of the suspension could cause some scraping problems.

Do you think larger sway bars by themselves would get rid of a lot of the body sway without lowering the car?

 

The ride height looks to be about 3/4 of an inch lower. As for the swaybar question, adding thicker swaybars on the stock suspension will reduce roll, I'm not a big fan of huge sway bars though. I like to tune roll with the springs and then use swaybars to fine tune the balance of the car.

 

the way my stock rx8 feels, it has quite a bit of bar, but very soft springs and shocks. it has felt like the front suspension gets down on the bump stops under hard trail braking (autocross), this is on the stock street tires. race tires will make the problem worse.

i also autocrossed an rx8 with a full suspension package (not sure which one) but the stiffer springs and shocks helped the car stay off the bump stops in front, and it was faster and more fun to drive.

so springs would be the first thing i would change- and get rid of those progressive rate springs, yuck.

the reason for using bar and spring instead of spring alone is that, usually, the amount of spring you need to control body roll is so high that the car will skate on bumps and be extremely uncomfortable to drive. the stickier the tire, the worse this problem is.

many rear wheel drive cars will use little or no rear bar because if its effect of lifting the inside rear wheel, which is especially bad news with a torsen.

james