Front swaybars are hard to come by for these cars, well if you want a good one for a good stock class autocross setup, which is what I'm looking for. I've read the threads, researched, etc. and it seems that if you want one of the saner, gendron, or comptech bars then you better cruise ebay, craigslist, or an endless number of S2000 or Autocross forums to find someone who's selling one. That being said, I have read that the Saner is a 1.25" Solid bar and the Eibach front bar is also a 1.25" Solid bar. So why is there no interest in the Eibach bar? I understand that a lot of people find that it isn't enough front bar for the S2000 (particularly AP1's, which is what I'm getting), so perhaps this is the main reason? Or maybe most of the guys autocrossing these at the national level have purchased cars from others that did the same thing before them, etc. so the car came with the swaybar.


Thanks for your insight. Any input is appreciated, but I'm not particularly in the market for the swaybar right now, although if one comes up I would be inclined to make an offer.

 

IIRC, the Eibach sway bars are hollow. I would assume that sway bar material, construction (hollow/solid), and adjustment points all play a part in the "rate" of the bar.

 

Are you running r-comp tires - Hoosier A6, Kumho V710, etc? What year AP1 are you buying? When I ran stock class auto-x, the off-the-shelf Saner was not stiff enough to keep the inside rear tire on the ground during sweepers. Not only does this keep you from accelerating until the tire touches back down, it's also hard on the differential. The '00-'01 AP1s have a stiffer rear anti-roll bar, which makes them more prone to this problem. The '02-'03 AP1s might be OK with an OTS Saner bar.

Most national level auto-xers use a different bar, like the Gendron or ARE bars, because they are lighter, have a larger adjustment range, higher stiffness potential, better endlink hardware, and better chassis mounts. Plus, the higher priced bars retain their resale value well.

I have never seen or used the Eibach, so I cannot comment on the construction. But, I suspect it would have similar negative characteristics to the Saner.

If you have some fab skills and the right tools, you can also make your own front anti-roll bar from readily available components from Speedway Engineering. Here's a bar I made for use on my STR build:





Hope that helps.

 

I'm looking at either a 2003 or a 2004. I know there are some serious differences in the two cars, engine size, as well as other things. I'm leaning more towards the 2003, but it depends on the price, mileage, etc. of the particular car. I'm indifferent if it comes down to just the year.


I was mulling it over in my head, making my own bar that is, but I wasn't sure where to start. I looked for 1-3/8" solid steel tubing, but I was not able to find it from a readily available supplier. Speedway engineering looks pretty sweet! I'll probably go the homemade route for that matter, seems pretty straight forward. I'm assuming you used the 30 degree bend steel swaybar ends bars?

Thanks for the help, this was much appreciated.
-Austin

 

Does anyone have the actual bar rates for the Saner, Comptech or Gendron?

Here are the rates for each adjustment point on the Eibach front bar:

Position 1: 368 lbs/in
Position 2: 416 lbs/in

 

Saner:
softest setting: 556lbs
medium setting: 644lbs
Stiffest setting: 739lbs

 

Yes, I used the 30 degree steel bar ends. You'll need to add some curvature to the arms to keep them from contacting the brake line mount and reduce the angle of the endlink. I don't have a good picture of the curvature, unfortunately. Too much angle and you'll side load the arms too much and possibly bend them. I actually need to bend mine a bit more than what is pictured above; my endlinks have a decent angle to them and I'd like to reduce it a bit more. Also, drill the holes a bit closer to each other than what is shown in my pics (7/8" center-to-center spacing). My effective bar rate increments are quite large due to the hole spacing.

 

I see, so your end bars aren't shaved, but bent a little more so they are a little more than 30 degrees, or did you also add some bending in the other direction (left-right direction while attached to the vehicle) to miss the brake line?

 

Sent these details to Austin, but I figured I'd share with the rest of the forum. I thought about manufacturing these and selling them...but I just don't have the time to invest in making multiple sets. So, here are some of the details...

I'm using the 1.25"OD .25" thick bar. Typically 1.375"OD is the largest bar anyone uses in B-stock trim. Depending on the bar arm design, you can get some fairly high rates from the 1.25"OD bars. They also offer a solid version. I was going for weight reduction over my Saner bar, which is why I opted for the hollow version.

The Gendron FSBs and my bar both use the 36" bar length. It seems to be just about perfect, even in STR trim. At full lock, the tires just barely clear the ends of the bar.

I did make adapter plates for the bearing mount. Here is the DWG and some images:

Drawing:


Test pieces:


Bearing mount (McMaster P/N 5912K11) in place:


Socket clearance:


Final versions for another auto-xer:






Mounted with shaft clamps (McMaster P/N 6157K21) in place:


The bars were plasma cut to size and I did add some lateral curvature to them. I bent them out ~2" at the ends, with the splined portion in the vise. The holes were drilled prior to bending the arms.

Standard arm vs. plasma cut:


Arm-to-brake line clearance before bending:


Clearance after bending:


Building the bar required a decent amount of time and effort, but I'm really please with the result. The design also weighs ~2 pounds less than the comparable Gendron design that uses the same bar section, according to weights from other auto-xers.

 

Nmrado - How did you bend the arms? With just a vise and some heat or with a press?