Just to add - This is a Miata Front Bar being installed in place of the rear swaybar of the s2000. Most people who do this have huge front swaybars namely, Gendron, Saner, Ankeny Racing or the adjustable comptech bar (no longer made). These folks are also generally running square tire setups with wide rubber (255's all around). This is part of the STR setup for SCCA Solo events. Hope this helps!

 

May be a dumb question, but why aren't people just disconnecting the rear sway? Or is that overkill? I know you couldn't for BS, but isn't that legal for STR?

 

People ARE disconnecting the rear bar. I was one of those people and I may go back to that. I had a softly sprung car that was slightly tail happy when pushed hard. I made the front spring change (+75#) to settle the rear down a little. This worked a little too well so I made a choice between ordering slightly stiffer springs for the rear, using the free NC bar from a local miata STR car or the free NA bar a local spec Miata racer had. After running my choices by my team manager (wife) it was decided that I had already spent too much time and money to drive around traffic cones anyway. Also I believe most of the national trophy cars had gone back to using a rear bar for 2011.

 

Rear bar allows me to go that much stiffer on my front bar without causing any push. I alot of front bar. It makes me smile.

 

Its a matter of style driving more than the physics, it seems. Some people seem to think disconnecting the rear bar makes the car sloppy and have too much understeer whereas others feel the car handles better with the rear bar connected.

 

My experience with disconnecting the rear bar is similar to what others posted on here. With the rear bar off, there was too much slop and delay before the suspension responded to my steering inputs. On paper, removing the rear bar made sense and should have worked. On course, this made the car worse and the tail of the car harder to control at the limit. The small steering inputs were more stable but anything aggressive upset the car. I would rather deal with the rear suspension set too stiff than the lack of feedback of no rear bar. It felt like an old 911 IMO. My "guess" is no rear bar creates slop and a delay between the time one side releases and the other side compresses/grips. In an autocross world or busy track, this delay is too slow when matched to the front. The only options left for the car in these situations is pushing and sliding. That's what it feels like from the drivers seat. Instead of a predictable slide, you have no feel what's going, then without warning the tail goes into hard slide that is difficult to manage.

This is just my opinion and based on my setup. I'm sure there are many variables to consider that would take time and many words to describe.

-Marc

 

That makes sense. Always a matter of balance. It's pretty cool that the MX5 bar works on the S. I may cannibalize my NA if the occasion arises.

So NC bars work...so I assume RX8 bars work as well. And if NA bars work, NB bars should work too. That gives us lots of options.

 

The rx8 bar works, but is about as stiff as the CR rear sway bar, although it is lighter. You have to space it off the subframe to clear the diff bolts. The red-dot rx8 bar is the least stiff rx8 bar, but stiffer than the mx5 bars, and 2006+ rear S2000 bar.

 

Thanks for the details. Is this the same experience as everyone else in order to make it fit?