Thread: hotchkis rear sway bar

so a friend of mine was telling me about the joy of infinitely variable rear sway bars from Hotchkis..

something is telling me that even the custom jobs for about $300 won't fit. basically, you measure from end to end and send them the length of the bar you want.. and they send it to you..

isn't a B13 SE-R rear sway bar too curvy and stuff to work with a "fits all models" type application?

Have you got any pics? we have an in cabin adjustable bar on our N14, its straight across and has a blade at one end that turns to adjust the stiffness.......... boot floor required modification with a frikkin big hammer to make that one fit.

If it doesn't use stock mounting brackets then it is definitely possible. I believe Greg Amy's NX had a custom rear sway that was a straight tube.

Why not just use more rear spring?

nah, no pics, it's basically a straight bar like natethebrown was talking about .. It's a universal bar where you measure the distance from end-links and they cut a bar..

the cool thing is that they are independently adjustable on either side



i am in the "soft springs, stiffer sway bar" camp.......

it makes the car nicer on the daily commute, especially in Tulsa where the roads are horrible.

I think the only thing that will get in the way of this bar would be the exhaust. You might have to put a few bends in the exhaust tube right before the muffler to tuck really well and have a short muffler.

hmm... that ups the price from $300 to somewhere closer to $400... depending on the price of the exhaust work... not worth it for me, as i only get on a track recreationally at conventions.. dang.

I really don't see the "infinitly adjustable" being useful on a street car.

I'm in the opposite camp. I prefer to use as little bar as possible, and back up stiffer springs with good dampers. I can't imagine Tulsa roads are any worse than NE Ohio! Up until the 600lb rear springs my track NX rode better than my daily SE-R



All the guys I know with "speedway" type rear bars have turn-downs or side exits.

i've been to 30+ states and 6 or 7 countries... Tulsa has the worst paved roads i have ever experienced...

that said, the only part of Ohio i went to was two trips to Cleveland..

but if you can get the same handling results with a softer ride, why wouldn't you? I'm not trying to be a jerk, just asking what the benefits are...

A big antiroll bar won't give you the same handling results as using stiffer main springs. You need yaw control (roll control front to back) in order to make a car handle well. In a production car without heave springs, you need to use the main springs to do this.

A big aftermarket bar will negatively affect ride over one wheel bump, especially if your dampers haven't been valved with that in mind. It usually isn't an issue with normal bolt on aftermarket bars because they're so small and have so many bends. But if you slap a big diameter straight bar on, this is something you're going to have to think about.

Blair is right though - a driver-adjustable antisway bar is going to be of limited use on a car that isn't built for and won't see a lot of track use.