I'm from Australia and don't know a lot about Racing Beat. I want to buy their sway bars, but I wanted to check with your guys first as to your thoughts/experience on their company/operation/products. Thanks heaps.

 

racing beat has a great rep

 

yea they are a good company.....id say their sway bars should be very very good

andrew

 

I don't know if you folks in Australia got the Mazdaspeed Protege or not, but if you didn't, Mazda sold a turbocharged special edition Mazdaspeed version of the Protege. As part of the package the Mazdaspeed Protege came with an upgraded suspension.

Mazda did not do the design work for the upgraded suspension....instead, they contracted the job to an outside tuner. I'll give you one guess who Mazda had do the suspension work

Racing Beat is a terrific shop...at least Mazda corporate seems to think so.

 

Thanks guys.................I really appreciate your help!!!!!!!

 

Yeah, RB has been bigtime involved in rotaries since the '70s. Any product of theirs is well tested and top quality.

Some of their stuff is a little pricey, but it's all good stuff. They put tons of engineering effort into everything.

Dale

 

i have the full racing beat exhaust on my FC RX-7 TII, and it's one of the best systems money can buy. 59 hp increase, sounds awesome, and looks even better.

i would definitely go with racing beat. they can be trusted, and have solid engineering to back up there products.

 

Didn't RB set some kind of speed record with a turbo FD at Bonneville a few years back? (I think they had one go airborne too if I recall correctly...oops!)

jds

 

RB sounds like a great company!!


andrew

 

I am seriously thinking of getting the front RB sway bar- I have a full set on my Miata and they made a huge difference. Has anyone installed them yet? I would be especially interested to see how the install went- on the miata on rhino ramps it wasnt too hard- only problem the M2 miata ones require some welding.

 

I have the Racing Beat front bar on my 8. The install is very straightforward, but you will not be doing on ramps (I was hoping also)! The requirement is to have the front wheels off and the car elevated, so everything can be gotten to easily. They recommend having a 6-point 14mm socket to remove the end link bolts with - I would follow that advice.

You remove a 10mm bolt (from the front valance) on either side, above the bar and inside the wheel well, as well as the end link bolts and the bushing bracket bolts. Then, with a person at each side of the car, you turn the wheel to the full right position, and move the bar as far to the right (and up, and back - this is why you remove the 10mm bolt) as it will go, then pivot the end of the bar over the steering rod ends.

Turn the steering wheel all the way left, and repeat. Rest assured, this part will take two people, as the end of the bar NOT being pivoted will have to be held up and back from the opposite side of the car.

Then the bar is removed from the driver side of the car. Repeat in the opposite order to install. My wife came out and helped with the "two-man" part, and the entire install took about 30 minutes.

Hope this is helpful.

 

driving impressions?

 

Autocross this Sunday (November 2nd), I'll report back then.

On the street (stock bar), in a steady state corner with the DSC off, a healthy dose of throttle will cause the front end to go away (BIG push) due to the car sitting back on the suspension (from the sudden throttle input) - with the Racing Beat bar, this is gone.

The rest, we'll find out Sunday.

 

do you notice flatter cornering or more responsive steering inputs?

hopefully it won't be too tail-happy at your x-cross- a big front sway bar can sometimes cause that

 

a bigger front ARB shouldn't cause oversteer if it is stiffer than the stock ARB. by going to a bigger front ARB, you will make the front suspension stiffer in roll, thereby transfering more weight at the front tires. more weight transfer at the front = more unqual tire loading = more push / understeer.

a stiffer ARB will decrease the amount of roll, decreasing the amount of camber change, but if you dont stiffen the rear along with the front, you might get more push than stock.

 

How much is the everyday ride effected?

 

EXACTLY.

 

None at all. The bar only acts in corners (when it's being twisted), there is NO effect at all when cruising.........

 

UNLESS - the problem was that the spring rate was going to infinity when the car settled onto the bump stops. By putting the larger bar on, maybe we can slow down the reaction of the "sitting down" on the suspension at an autocross, thereby effectively reducing the understeer - because it's not anywhere near infinity stiff...

All you ex-VW autocrossers know about this...........

 

I understand that, but was referring to broken/bumpy pavement where the bar can make the ride really choppy if its too stiff.

 

Ride quality should suffer a little, but only for bumps that you hit with one side but not the other. I'm not an expert on suspensions, but I figure that what sway bars do is provide resistance to the movement of one side with respect to the other. Anytime you increase resistance to the movement of the suspension the ride quality suffers, but conversely you get much better feel for the road (obviously).

On a sharp turn your outside tire feels more force, so it goes up, whereas the inside tire feels less force. This means that weight is shifting to the outside, meaning your outside tires are doing more work to grip the pavement that the inside tires. The sway bar limits the movement of the outside tires with respect to the inside tires, keeping the car more level and letting your inside tires do their thang.

 

mine should be here on Tuesday-

 

Installed mine over the weekend (just the front). Ride quality does suffer some- you have less independent travel now- it one wheel hits a bump, both wheels move. Steering response is quicker and more immediate, and cornering is oddly flat- amazingly so...

 

Regarding RacingBeat -
I put an RB CAI, stainless header and cat-back exhaust on my Miata. Great components, reasonably priced. Fit and finish was OEM, and the performance boost definitely noticeable. I'll buy their stuff for the RX8 when available.

 

I know you guys like "numbers", during prototype testing the RB bars improved cornering g's from .86-.87g (stock) to .89-.90 (RB bars). These bars were developed for the RX-8 by Jim Mederer, the same person that tuned the suspension for the Protege MP3 and Mazdaspeed versions.

Jim Langer
Racing Beat