REVIEW: Hotchkis rear sway bar

[maestromaestro]

Yeah I’d look at spring rates etc and maybe play around with more rear tire pressure and stiffness in rear. My buddy has been autocrossing rwd cars for years and is a great driver. He switched to a fist few years ago and just at the end of last season he said he finally figured out how to get car to rotate the way wanted it to. I have been mostly been autocrossing fwd cars and never could understand what he couldn’t get lol. With my car on stock suspension I can take on ramps winding out 2nd and at anytime I can get off gas then the rear will drift out even on tires like re71r’s etc. get back in gas and rear goes back straight. Maybe need more off throttle technique to get it to rotate on demand.

Geebus. There's an off/on ramp in town that I take at 85 mph; I can lift all I want, the car doesn't rotate, let alone drift. I am not flicking the wheel, following the "race kine" through the double apexes.

Maybe I'm too smooth?? lolz.

 

[Dpro]

Yeah I’d look at spring rates etc and maybe play around with more rear tire pressure and stiffness in rear. My buddy has been autocrossing rwd cars for years and is a great driver. He switched to a fist few years ago and just at the end of last season he said he finally figured out how to get car to rotate the way wanted it to. I have been mostly been autocrossing fwd cars and never could understand what he couldn’t get lol. With my car on stock suspension I can take on ramps winding out 2nd and at anytime I can get off gas then the rear will drift out even on tires like re71r’s etc. get back in gas and rear goes back straight. Maybe need more off throttle technique to get it to rotate on demand.

Yup this is exactly what I am talking about its the way I tend to drive my FiST

 

[Truth in Ruin]

Geebus. There's an off/on ramp in town that I take at 85 mph; I can lift all I want, the car doesn't rotate, let alone drift. I am not flicking the wheel, following the "race kine" through the double apexes.

Maybe I'm too smooth?? lolz.

It took me awhile to figure out how to make the FiST rotate, admittedly. I used to try to get it to rotate thru a turn by using throttle. All that did was make me realize that the car needed an LSD. Honestly, if you find an L curve near by that you could take somewhat aggressively- you should be able to get the car to rotate. Come up on an L curve with moderate speed, hit the throttle to gain a little speed but more importantly to transfer the weight to the rear of the car, let off the throttle to reduce weight off the rear, then quickly turn right after you let off the throttle and you should rotate no problem. If that doesn’t work- it’s your set up.

 

[maestromaestro]

Well, having slides is frankly not my goal - although I enjoy lurid slides as much as the next guy. I am going for a rotation in a turn. But, I will try to get the rpms up in a lower gear and see if I can induce a lift oversteer. Although it looks like the way it's set up makes going around the corners faster, by not sliding, perhaps just very subtly rotating - so much so that I can't discern it...

 

[CSM]

Installed mine today. My caveat is that I also installed Bilstein B14 PSS coilovers at same time. Rear is noticeably more stable and planted.

I did run into an issue with a noticeable gap with the bolt holes on the sway bar. We found a washer to fill the gap but still something was off with alignment of the bar will post photos later when not on mobile

 

[CSM]

See the gap?

 

[jeff]

I’m not saying that you did this, but it is possible that if you tightened the top stock bolt more than hand tight before cranking on the two bottom ones that it bent the bar and caused that gap. It looks to me like the bar is bent concave a little bit. The instructions warned against that.

No matter, your washer solution took care of the problem.

See the gap?

 

[jeff]

 

[CSM]

Nope we were careful to follow instructions and we only hand tightened the shock bolts for alignment purposes. It was pretty clear we were going to have a gap no matter what we did. But the spacer helped.

 

[koozy]

To me it looks like the 2 bottom sway bar bolts were tightened first without the top side bolt properly in place snug up to the factory bracket mount. I personally would have slotted the holes before using washers, because there's still wiggle room and slop with the washers for the sway bar to move around unlike if it was butted up against the factory mount. I found the pre drilled holes on the sway bar are pretty forgiving and over sized for the bolts.

 

[koozy]

Snapped a few shots for comparo.

 

[CSM]

Like i said we were super careful and followed directions to a "T" but it was clear there was gonna be a gap no matter what. Not sure if its because mine is a 2014 or what? Either way the washer fixed it. But I love the bar...made a huge differeence

 

[koozy]

Mine is also a 2014. I didn’t follow instructions exactly. I lifted the rear end up and did it on jack stands, using my floor jack to position the torsion beam as necessary.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[RubenZZZ]

Installed my Hotchkis bar Sunday night...

Took the car for a spin. Definitely felt more planted. Reminded me of my old E46 with sport suspension.

On the freeway drive this morning i definitely noticed less "wallow" at speed when making quick lane changes. It felt flat and sharp. Took a tight u-turn offramp fairly fast and the car showed considerably less body roll.

VERY happy with the results.

Sent from my LGLS992 using Tapatalk