DS sway bar
 

So I'm pretty new to autox and am looking for some advice. I'm looking to upgrade the front bar with either the Strano or Hotchkis. I was wondering if anyone had any experience with these or possibly another recommendation that I haven't considered. I have a 2016 FRS ans have just ordered a set of RE71s. I have never raced an FRS and don't want to go with to large of a front bar. Thanks in advance for the insight.

You should read this thread http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=35855 I suspect you can find an answer there.

Thanks for the link. I've been trying to sift though all the info but it's a little overwhelming to be honest.

The suspension is a system that are all interconnected and work together. The bar, shocks, and even tire pressures all work together to tune the car and the setup that works best for one driver won't necessarily work best for another.

You are about to slip down through the rabbit's hole and I don't remember which pill you're supposed to take, let alone which one is objectively best.

I personally picked a whiteline 20mm, non-adjustable bar. I found in the past that I would just set the bar and change other things, so I didn't want to mess with one more degree of freedom to mess with.

Yeah that's probably not a bad idea for me to go with something non adjustable. I have found myself in the past always wondering if and what I should change to try to fix a certain problem. I know nothing is univestal with thsee things but didn't know if there was a blatantly wrong choice for a certain reason.

If you go too stiff, you might hate the understeer (I was coming from a WRX, so I wanted to avoid understeer as much as possible).

With stock struts, I'd go with a bar that's not too much stiffer than stock (22mm or smaller).

That's my wish as well. I come from a history of miatasks myself. I had an NC and always had and issue with understeer. I absolutely hated it and don't want to repeat that mistake again. That's what I was worried about with the hotchkis being 24.5mm.

Why are you looking to upgrade the front sway? Do you feel the car has too much oversteer? Don't upgrade just because you can. I would put on the Re71's and run a season on those, really learn the car, and then decide what needs to be changed based on your driving style. Just my 2c. It sucks to pay money for parts and installation just to find out you don't like the changes they made.

In DS, you are allowed to change one sway bar and the front is the one that helps. A stiffer front bar helps with turn in and stiffens the car up some to help with weight transfer.

The strano bar is hollow, so the diameters don't directly compare with the solid bars like the whiteline or perin bars. I believe it is similar to a 22mm bar, but you'd need to check.

You can compensate for the any unwanted understeer with alignment changes, a little toe out up front or dialing out some of the toe in in the rear would compensate. You can always resell your sway bar later for nearly what it costs you, it's probably the cheapest mod you can do (the alignment will cost more than one of the bars).

I would honestly drive the car with the RE71's on it first without changing anything. My 2013 FRS was way on the side of oversteer when I started to autox. I know they made changes to the suspension since the 13's to try and dial that out.

If you have to much oversteer than think about getting rid of the rear sway first. As this is a free mod. We have a few twins that have taken off the rear sway and found the car acts much better.

yeah that is a good point. fortunately i have a friend that is a tech at a local dealership that will do any alignment specs that i'm looking for at no extra charge so that helps out.

now i have actually done that with both of my past miatas but i hadn't heard of anyone doing that with these cars. i guess thats always an option as well.

Perrin 19mm or Whiteline 20mm. You can make any of them work well as you can adjust your driving to it.

I'm not sure no rear bar will be the ticket on stock springs.

IIRC the Strano is similar to the 20mm adjustable Whiteline at its stiffest, which is the bar I'd start with (the Whiteline, that is).

I'd still give it a run or two with the stock bar, and probably with the stock tires as well, given the "new to AutoX" bit. RE71's are great tires, but do mask mistakes. It's also difficult to know if you want more or less bar if you don't have a point of reference...

I would go ahead and max out the front negative camber, regardless (~-1.5ish on bolts typically) - that may be done already but figured I'd mention it.