I've installed the front sway bar from Tanabe on the car after having done a performance alignment. The alignment was a large improvement, the addition of the stiffer sway bar made the difference night and day.

I highly recommend installing Tanabe's or Racing Beat's sway bar. Typically there shouldn't have been that much of a difference, but due to the way the stock suspension rolls excessively..... Well the grin on my face says it all.:D :D :D

 

How about the rear? And what's different between Tanabe's, RB's, Mazdaspeed's, etc

 

I didn't do the rear to remain legal in SCCA B-Stock.

The difference was, it was at the shop and no shipping costs.

I doubt there will be a noticeable difference between any of them.

 

How much does an aftermarket sway bar effect the ride, and did you combine it w/ coilovers?

 

post some pix pleez...

 

The sway bar doesn't affect ride quality too much. The only noticeable difference is that a bump on the right is also felt on the left now. I did not do coil-over as that would also put me out of B-Stock and into a different class.

Since I didn't take any pictures of the installation, I didn't post any pictures here. There is no noticeable difference in appearance and you'd have to peek under the car to catch a glimpse of the new sway bar. If you really want a picture though, just find one of a stock sunlight silver GT with appearance pkg.


Understand... I am limited in what I can do because of the SCCA Auto X class I prefer to run in. The rear sway bar, coil-over, performance alignment, and new wheels and tires would make this a truly impressive handling car, but 1) I can't afford it and 2) it takes me out of Stock class.


The point is that with just doing the new alignment, the car handled better, adding to that the stiffer sway bar you get a horse of a different color.

 

Yeah, Alex is a wuss and wants to stay b-stock ( I love ya bro!). I did some research and the Tanabe is actually slightly smaller than the RB bar on the front, and slightly larger in the rear, but both of them are substantially larger than the stock one. I liked that the Tanabe is a dark color so the bottom of the car doesnt look like a Lego set with all these different color parts.

Another guy is getting the springs on this weekend that I plan on checking out. However, I will be putting on both front and rear sway bars hopefully next week (come ooooon payday!).

I sure wish I had the cash cause the local shop also got in a full HKS coilover setup (by mistake!) and was selling it at cost. Too bad I had no money

 

yeah, that HKS deal was tempting even for me

 

you guys should get the coilover, it really helps the handling of the car alot.

 

do you have a picture of the strut bar, thanks.

 

No, I don't have a picture of the Strut bar, I have a sway bar... :p

and since people keep asking... here's a picture of the sway bar from under the car... I think it speaks for itself as to why I didn't include one to begin with.

 

Haha ya i kinda see now...not much of a looker there. But as long as it gets the job done

 

nice bro..