Norm Peterson

When you can adjust both bars, you have more combinations to choose from to suit the rest of your car's setup . . . and your own driving/handling preferences.


Norm

Import_Slaya

That isn't necessarily a good thing on the track. If you like it, stick with it. I always ended up asking them for a longer pedal travel. Being at WOT by 1/2 pedal makes the car "feel" quick, but it makes modulating corner exit more difficult (and downright sketchy in the rain).

I have a lot of tunes (Bama, Brenspeed, Tillman) and had them all modify the tune with a longer pedal for road racing. It's basically the stock pedal travel, but with the tip in lag/delay removed. The tune I'm running now is from Eric Brooks at BrooksSpeed--by far my favorite tune. Feels much more factory than any of the others (e.g. solid idle, best cold weather starts, etc...).

Norm Peterson

Until I slowed the linkage action down, I had the mechanically analogous condition on the Malibu with purely mechanical throttle linkage EFI - 1000cfm throttle body on a 350. Forget about fine throttle modulation off-idle, and when it's all in as far as the motor is concerned by maybe 2/3 throttle any further throttle motion was pointless.

I didn't like that in street driving, let alone autocross.

I wonder if the guys with the really big throttle bodies on these cars have to put up with this in addition to the overly quick initial throttle tip-in from most tunes?


Norm

Sam Strano

Bigger isn't always better....

Mine are the combination of size/adjustability/weight that I find best. Hotchkis are much larger than mine (largely because they have no springs to gain roll stiffness with).

Eibach... their front bar is like mine (35mm hollow, adjustable). But I do use a little thicker wall (stiffer) and my rear bar is hollow and 3-way adjustable--their's is neither.

Whiteline is a joke here. The front bar from them is SMALLER than stock. Rears range from too big and non-adjustable to WAY too big and adjustable.

fasterplease

Thanks. Good info on both the sway bars and tuning. It is certainly fun to learn by trying things out.

Hotchkis

Look for an announcement later this year for a whole Hotchkis suspension package we are engineering to compliment our sway bars.

Our front and rear bars are fully adjustable for tuning to your specific needs on the street and also on the road course. They are stronger than stock and lighter than other bars on the market. Whether you’re on the track or the street, weight savings equals power and efficiency gains.

Here are the specs on our sway bars:
1.5" Tubular Front Bar, 4 Way Adjustable. Rate increase vs stock +20%, +29%,+38%,+50%
1" Tubular Rear Bar, 3 Way Adjustable. Rate increase vs stock +50%, +70%, +100%.

Sam Strano

I sell Hotchkis stuff... Including their bars because I believe in offering options. But they aren't lighter than what I make, as mine are hollow at both ends too (and adjustable too), but I use a smaller (again, bigger isn't always better) tube for both bars... not small mind you just not massive like the Hotchkis stuff. The result is my bars do weigh a bit less

Balance wise both my kit and Hotchkis kit are similar.... But I try to avoid mongo rear bars like the plague. They do effect ride, but also tend to cause more inside rear wheelspin, something even the Boss has with the Torsen because of the big rear bar it uses. In fact I took the stock 24mm rear off my '11 for my adjustable 22mm rear and it's much, much better driving now. One reason I can run less rear bar and still get balance is I watch what's up with spring rates... the spring rate and the bar rate give you wheel rate, and that's the key. But also I don't set stuff up with a stock alignment which gives up grip in the front and the easy way to counter that is to just slap a big rear bar on and take some grip from the back for balance. I want balance, but I don't want to give up mechanical grip to get it.

DRock

I saw most of the stuff at SEMA. Looks like there is gonna be some good stuff.

Hotchkis

This is as much as we'll say at this point....

Here's our latest project Mustang for R&D of more parts. Stay tuned.

Sam Strano

Again, let me say that Hotchkis parts are very good quality and that I sell Hotchkis parts, I just always feel they are what I want.

As for having project cars. Well, I've had mine since June 19th, and it's already won two SCCA National Championships and when the weather breaks (since I do not live in sunny CA) I'll be prepping even further to move to E-Street Prepared to win that class again since I left it in 2006 and extend my string of wins overall to 6 years in a row, and 8 overall (not counting the ProSolo stuff).

Here is a pic of me in action, not on a lift: http://www.stranoparts.com/showimage...&w=512&a=1&s=1

Some in-car footage:
http://www.stranoparts.com/videos.php?VideoID=8

And finally, some external footage from a local event where I was testing some different parts and tires: http://www.stranoparts.com/videos.php?VideoID=7

I'll close by saying that a Hotchkis driver who also runs SCCA National stuff came to me to prep the car they won their last National Championship with (a Mustang).