Guys that are using the CompTech adjustable sway bar for competition.
What setting do you recommend for spirited street use?

 

What wheels and tires are you running?

 

These questions come up all the time and I usually stay quiet, but I'm bored tonight, so here's my rant:

I think the tendency people seem have to modify these cars to understeer at steady state is a dangerous one. The back of the car is SUPPOSED to come around in a turn and in stock form, the car actually unersteers. I see constant threads from people trying to keep the "wild" back end of this car planted. If you put a big sway bar on the front, that will make the car understeer most of the time, but if you induce oversteer (intentionally or otherwise), the tail will still come out, but the difference will be that you won't be prepared for it and it will likely happen much more suddenly.

Rather building understeer into the car, take driving lessons. Seriously, you will find yourself in a whole new car once you know how to control it properly. And you'll be glad not to have spent lots of money upsetting a well-balanced car.

 

My Comptech adjustable is sitting on the garage floor somewhere. Back to the OEM.

 

I do agree that the "general public" complains unnecessarily about the car being tail-happy, and that they should learn how to drive the car. However, this post WAS in the Racing & Competition forum. Let's find out why the poster was asking the question and what he is trying to achieve with a sway bar.

I've been told that I would need a sway bar if I put on race tires (for AutoX)...so I imagine there are situations where you would want to modify the car. All of the top AutoXers have sway bars on their S2000s (trust me....I looked around at the SD tour after getting my a$$ whooped ).

In that case...do you guys like the Comptech? I hear stories of the other sway bars clanking around and being all sorts of noisy, which would drive me nuts. Opinions? And what setting would you put it on?

 

A few things:

- The Rev was trying to address a couple of things:
1) "Wild" rear end movement - learn to drive RWD and don't drive like an ass on the street.
2) Suspension setup, related to 1 - adding understeer without purpose just slows the car down or "dumbs it down". Learn to drive RWD and don't drive like an ass on the street.

- Autocross setup generally means leaving the car with all but the tires attached when in normal driving. I leave my swaybar on full stiff and don't find understeer on the street 'cause I don't drive like an ass on the street. If pushed to the limit, the car will assuredly "push" but you shouldn't be doing that on the street - that's what autocross and track events are for.

- I have had the Comptech bar since it was first introduced. Never had noise from it except from the urethane bushings, like any other setup (including stock) where the soft rubber bushings are replaced with urethane.

- A side "benefit" of leaving the bar where it was set for autocrossing - you can get away with using real life 225 size tires on the rear. The extra understeer induced is offset by the narrower rear tires. Whether you want skinnier tires is a personal decision.

 

DO you like the sway bar? Do you feel that you need to change it to a Saner or Gendron bar? On full stiff does it lift the inside rear wheel on the Auto-x course?

 

I don't see a need to change to the Saner - my gut feel is that it would likely be a small step backwards (can't prove it, though). A change to the Gendron bar *could* be advantageous but I still haven't seen anything to compare the two for stiffness. I wouldn't change without seeing numbers.

Any of these swaybars will still allow some wheelspin if there's enough grip. You're not going to get the body roll to zero in stock class...

 

For any reasonable street driving, you don't need to do anything to the car; you should consider taking a good driving school, so you really understand all you have with this car, but you don't need to mod it--anything you can do even semi-legally or semi-reasonably does not require special equipment, only skill and common sense.

If you want to autocross, this is the best writeup of which I am aware for preparing the S2000.

For track, you'll have to look elsewhere, but, again, skill and sense are the most important things you can acquire (in addition to better brake pads/fluid).

I did five autocrosses before I did anything other than put in better pads/fluid (and that was for the track, not autocross). For my sixth, a week ago, I put in a Gendron bar, and used my track tires (Michelin PSC; a relatively unagressive R compound) for the first time. I felt much more planted, and went much faster than I had previously. I believe that a stiffer front bar is necessary for best results, but you have to acquire a lot of skill before the car, rather than the driver, is the limiting factor.