Hotchkis sway bar question.
 

What do you guys do with the rear bar? Make a lamp out of it? Is it worth it to buy the Eibach sways instead.

You buy both, leave the rear in your garage in the corner, lol

Lamp is a good idea though


And no, buy Hotchkis

The rear makes all the difference. People who tell you otherwise are misinformed or have not actually run Hotchkis and are parroting (repeating) something they have heard.

Run the rears in the middle position.

onzedge™ has written

My Hotchkis rear is sitting on my floor at the moment only cause I haven't had a chance to through it in the attic. The rear is absolutely worthless. Personaly, I found even the Eibach rear bar to be too stiff. I'm running autox though, so my setup might not be exactly what you're looking for. fwiw I'm not even running a rear bar anymore.

I ran it on full soft, made the rear wayyyyyy too tail happy

Loveyoulongtime.

I do not find this to be true. I also run Swift Spec R and Koni Sport with SPL links.

Don't argue with me.

track or autoX that you are recommending this for?

You cannot rely entirely on what you hear from us or the internets. Ultimately, it is how you drive your car, your tires, set-up. etc. You will have to decide. If you decide not to use the rears - make a barbell....for big guns.....to help you make high speed corrections.

http://i00.i.aliimg.com/img/pb/868/1...160868_179.jpg

I drive my z cars on the streets and highways of our great nation.

I have an Eibach front bar set to full stiff and the oem Nismo rear bar. I removed the Eibach rear bar and went back to the Nismo bar as I was getting a lot of push with the rear bar set to the middle setting. I still have under steer but it is manageable and I will keep it there until I change out my front tires as they are SO-4s and my rears are RE-11s. I think the stiffer sidewalls on the RE-11's will make difference and I'm thinking of running in 275s as well.

I got the Hotchkis bars. I have the rear set on the softest setting. On the street, it's fine. On the track, it's can get tail happy if I'm not careful with my driving. At the Tail of the Dragon. I got some push on some of the down hill hair-pins. Need bigger tires on the front.

You're full of chit! :D There is only 2 holes on each side on mine.

I think for the novice drivers the low or med setting should be fine.

For the guys who push the HELL out of it? Doing without and staying oem like in my case will allow you to push the limits.

I don't condone the driving like a maniac on public roads without the rear Hotchkis bar :p

I'm going to eat some crow now. :yum:

Looked at my journal. And I have pictures that show 3 holes per side.

Anyone got some salt and pepper? :yum:

This makes it easy. Hotchkis it is, with possible new garage lamp if it doesn't work out for the rear, sounds like that is a no go.

Yeap, you need 285/35/19's. I am headed that way also. Need to address the factory camber also, needs a little more negative camber than stock settings. Outside edge of my fronts were taking a beating on the Dragon after I dusted the cobwebs off my slow driving.

The Hotchkis rear bar is stiffer than stock.

The car's handling balance is the sum of many factors, a stiffer rear bar doesn't automatically cause oversteer.

With 1100lb. front and 650lb. rear springs and Hotchkis bars (rear full soft) my car understeered a lot. With 700lb. rears and the rear bar in the middle, it still pushes. Going to 800lb. springs in the rear now, may end up higher.

A nice thing about the Hotchkis rear bar is it's adjustable - it's a great way to make a quick and relatively small change to the handling balance.

May go with 305's. :D

Why not just buy the front, it's what I did.

PS I run no rear bar.

Whether people have done it or not, when someone like Clint speaks up, most people listen ;)

Really? I'd think for a novice you'd want them to have more understeer and not oversteer. Ever see the mustang car event where 4-5 pull out and they all fishtail then end up crashing into the curb or into on coming traffic? I personally don't want a novice with more oversteer.

Please to double-check, Rusty-san.

There are indeed three holes per side.

I listen to, and heed, only the 35 years of experience I have driving, restoring, racing, modifying, wrecking and rebuilding Z cars (and other assorted Datsuns and Nissans). The only "Clint" of whom I am aware and whose advice I would even consider as valid is Clint Eastwood and I do not see him here on our beloved forum.

:icon17:

How about Doran racing then that has 2 cars and some of the best Z drivers in the Continental tire racing series? What about the people at Stance coilovers? I could go on but if Doran runs a bar they custom make and it's WAY stiffer than even the Hotchkis AND they run the OEM rear as all others are to stiff then I have to side with them. Unless I'm talking to one of them right now? Are you BJ??

I do not know those folks and I am not BJ. That is an unfortunate name though.

Hey, Hey, Keep it to a min. LOL I searched for 2-3 days off and on about sway bars. I read enough bickering.

Breakin it down to the bear essentials:
1. More front is better and for performance driving there is no such thing as too much front bar.
2. How much rear bar is dependent on your driving style, suspension and type of driving. As a general rule, too much rear bar can make the Z tail happy.

Good luck with getting this stuff dialed in. It will take some time to get it right, but that is what makes it fun!!!

Hotchkis sway bar question.
 

We typically run from :softer than a standard rear bar... to a Nismo rear bar... Or in between.
Depends on how much grip the track has.
We have 3 rear bars that we can switch between depending on where we end up.
Normally we run either the lower and middle bar.
Each side has adjustable blades that gives us an adjustable range. If we find we get towards the top of that range..
We can go to the middle sized bar... And and have adjustment down or up.

Front bar.... Its big.... Real freakin big.
More like massive.
:)


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Good to know. That gives me a starting point.

I hear ya. I want it to be like my 75 280zt. On a banked off ramp it sticks like glue so good that it will actually snap your head to the outside of the turn. :) Got a ticket for going 78mph that day at the exit of the off ramp. Oops, those were the crazy days. It was a banked loop.

There IS such a thing as too much front bar. Trust me. You DO understand that a sway bar is doing the right thing, but solving it the wrong way...correct?

Tracy Ramsey

Come on now...if you read through all the threads on this forum regarding front sway bar and tracking (road racing) and autoX one thing rings true regardless of other suspension set up and sticky tires and that is you can not buy a front bar that is to stiff. The pros all make their own!!! If you are DD and only drive the car spiritedly, then you don't need to go to extremes that are being pointed out here, but any Z's handling will benefit from more front bar!!! Try it you will like it....

I did. :D

I have heard there are 2 different version of the Hotchkiss sway bar. The original being the more stiff. It's possible a later version "Hotchkiss2" is not as stiff and maybe has fewer holes in it?

I have run the Stillen front full stiff and no rear bar for a little under a year. Very happy with the setup. I have just switched to a Godspeed front(don't know the numbers but people have said that it is on par or stiffer than the Hotchkiss1). I have yet to track it but will be going a week from Saturday so can provide some feedback then. On a small tangent I can comment that the Godspeed front is well designed, fits much better than the stillen ever did. The thing is a heavy beast.

For the record the stillen front and OEM rear are imo as much bar as you woud ever need for street driving. The big no no is to just not run anything greater than oem rear, will give you some nasty snap oversteer in my experience.

I have a stiffer front bar and I am perfectly happy with it. I run a Whiteline front on full stiff, and a stock rear bar. I also don't race on race tires with the car, which in itself would desire a stiffer bar. It is all in the application which determines how big of a bar you will need. But if you run a monstrous front bar on the car, then you better be ready to either have tires which can handle it, or be prepared to have a very understeering car.

I haven't heard of 2 different versions of the bar. Maybe someone else has.

Here is a shot of the rear Hotchkis as mounted on my 2013 370Z. Please note the presence of 3 (three) holes).

http://scontent.fsnc1-1.fna.fbcdn.ne...fc&oe=5628CB3D

I am not longer full of chit as you so colorfully sated in one of your earlier posts.

Apology accepted.