Now We’re on a Roll—or Should We Say Anti-Roll

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Update by John Rogers to the Mazda MX-5 Miata project car
May 5, 2010

During our first outing in our Project MX-5, we noticed significant body roll in the box-stock car. Matters were made a little worse when we bolted on sticker competition tires. Some of the body roll was mitigated when we added KW Variant 3 Coil-Overs thanks to their stiffer spring rates. However, we still felt there was too much side-to-side flop in the chassis.

To help manage the lateral weight transfer, we turned to Hotchkis Sport Suspension. They make a front and rear anti-roll bar kit for the MX-5. Both bars are tubular and three-way adjustable. Installation was straightforward enough, especially in the rear. The front took a little work to fish the bar through the plumbing and subframe.

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Comments
chiketkd
chiketkd
5/13/10 8:20 a.m.

Wow - I could eat off the underside of that car!

mustclime
mustclime New Reader
5/13/10 8:24 a.m.

Why go to sways? They reduce grip, up the spring rates to control body roll.

jstein77
jstein77 SuperDork
7/2/10 8:42 a.m.

I don't think that anti-roll bars actually reduce grip as long as the front-rear balance is maintained or improved. Did GRM (or Tire Rack, in this case) record before and after skidpad readings?

legend4life
legend4life
8/1/10 2:05 p.m.

I would also like to know how much overall grip, body roll, and balance were affected after these.

mustclime
mustclime New Reader
8/3/10 11:30 a.m.

When a car goes into a turn and the car leans over compressing one side of the suspension and forcing the swaybar up, the sway on the other side pulls the other side of the suspension up. If down force increasses grip, How does up force effect grip? Sway bars have no place on an autoX car in a class where springs are open.

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