Seeking sway bar advice
 

Hi all. I'm relatively new to SCCA autocross though I do have several years of experience in my well prepared 240z with a small club in northern CA. Last April I bought a new 370z and thus far my nephew (co-driver) and i have run the car at about 6 scca events and about 7 or 8 small club events. My intention with buying a new car was to run in a stock class with SCCA (CS-T1 road tire class San Francisco Region), because i felt the level of competition is higher with SCCA than what i'm used to, and after taking a hard honest look at my driving i decided my skills needed improvement as I felt like to some degree, I had been hiding behind a very fast car while not necessarily improving my driving as much as i had improved the car. So my ultimate goal is to go much faster by way of improving my driving first. To date, my driving is probably not yet where i want it (sound familiar?), but i have been practicing and i am getting faster consistently. While I'm not planning on buying any parts until i feel better about the driving, i'm tempted to start doing homework on go faster parts. What i notice about the 370 is that it seems to be a bit tail happy during on throttle corner exit and with the viscous LSD it seems to have difficulty putting power down to the inside wheel as you unwind the steering and accelerate. I'm wondering what kind of results others have had with by installing a larger front sway bar. Are other folks experiencing the same thing, and does the front bar change help? Thanks.

Was your 240 the black car that used to run at PCA events? Yes bigger front bar definitely helps with getting more power down in rear. Biggest stickiest rear tire you can get rear will help. A good adjustable shock will help too. That stock LSD sucks but if you are running stock that's the one you have to run.

You can run a Single bar upgrade and still stay in Stock class. Keep your intakes and your cats and you basically you can change your filters, cat back exhaust, 1 sway bar and DOT tires to stay in stock class.

It is pretty much accepted that our cars cannot run too much front bar. The biggest bar available is through Doran Racing followed by the Hotchkiss bar.

There are lots of bar choices. Be careful as biggest doesn't always mean stiffest. Hotchkis is a hollow bar. There are solid bars that are likely a little smaller but just as stiff. Progress makes a bar that I use that is same diameter as Hotckis but its not adjustable. I believe Hotchkis bar is adjustable. It's also fairly inexpensive. doran stuff is one off and hard to get. More for serious track car use. I can say my progress bar has been very good even without adjustability.

Your right. I should have said "stiffest" not "biggest."

The black car is a good friend of mine, however my car is yellow with silver/grey BRE stripes #101. I also used to run it at the PCA events when ESCA members were allowed to run PCA events since we share the same surface on the backside of the Sonoma County Airport. Unfortunately PCA doesn't allow this anymore.
Thanks for the replies so far. SCCA now allows you to change either front or rear bar in stock class. It seems that for an otherwise stock car perhaps the stiffest might not be best so as to not totally unbalance the car. It seems like i could end up with lots of understeer. I have seen "crash bolts" for front camber adjustment (tire rack) which seems like perhaps a good match with the front bar change, but i'm not sure the legality of this in stock. I have talked to people about this, but never seem to get a clear answer.

As long as you get big tires under the front and give the car an AX alignment you won't have an issue with understeer. Just put small amount of toe out upfront and car will turn. I may be mistaken but don't think those bolts would do anything for our suspension. You need to do something with upper arm which would be against rules in stock. In stock class if rule doesn't say you can do something you can't do it. No gray area.

Cool thanks for the help.

What tires and sizes are you planning to run?

Just a suggestion before you spend some money you could always see if disconnecting the rear sway bar helps.

Currently running rs3's on stock Rays wheels, 245/40/19 front and 275/35/19 rear. Has anyone tried the any of the various bars available? Hotchkis seems to stiff at "205%" stiffer. If I remember correctly (looked at so many now I'm hallucinating) Stillen is 25-48% stiffer. I'm somewhat confused about why so much variance. Not real clear on wall thickness, etc. Wish i could find an adjustable bar where softest setting started at about stock and went up from there.
I have considered disconnecting the rear bar, but i think stiffening the front will have a better affect by allowing the car to shift weight faster and have better rear grip. Thanks.

Resipsa, are you running only a front bar, or both. Do you autocross, and if so, do you get understeer? Thanks.

OOps! That last question was meant for shamu. Been starring at the screen for to long:/

The sway bars on a Nismo are stiffer than the standard bars and are factory, this may help getting around the rule limitations. Maybe going with an Nismo factory barat the front and an aftermarket rear adjustable might give you the combination you are looking for.
Its trial and error.