Add a rear sway bar, no front. I can't think of a single nationally competitive Evo that has a front sway bar replaced with something larger.

 

Wow, Im kinda suprised no one else said anything.

Big spring rates and stiff rear swaybars have been the common thing to do on our pushy evos. It works... but I think its a bandaid to the real problem. We are too busy trying to get our evos to turn in the rear that we loose focus on trying to get the rear to stick.

TRE helps us fix this issue for cheap with the Max Lock rear diff.
http://www.teamrip.com/EVOLUTION%20R...20SERVICE.html
You have to change your some of your rear suspension setup when you change the rear diff because it allows you to focus on getting the rear to stick not turn. So you really dont need big sway bars just an adjustable one where you can pick a setting that fits your wants and needs. As for spring rates I say the front should be the same as the rear when you do the rear diff. As for how stiff, thats up to the driver needs and tires used.

For the front I say just get the Cusco front ADJUST STABILIZER BRACKET. These work very well and are easy to install.


Dont forget your whiteline products too, Roll,Steering and Bump should all be replaced.



Good Luck

Evan Smith

 

Rear roll stiffness and the rear diff are pretty exclusive of each other. Ditch the rear roll stiffness and you increase steady state push. I don't know anyone who has dropped rear rate after installing a better rear diff. The diff is really only effective on corner exit anyway. I don't think the stiffer rear bar is necessary. This all applies more to a 285 r-compound shod SP/SM car though.

Seriously, even with the GSC 40/60 center and the TRE rear diff I did absolutely nothing to my rear setup besides bringing toe in a touch.

Cool find on the front adjuster bracket, do you know of anyone selling it?

 

^^^ Keeping the stiffer springs in the rear depend on a lot of factors but most of the evo owners drive street. I run 255 R888's and F12k R12k spring rates, I love my set up it works great for me. I can see the need for more rear spring on a AutoX car but for the road course I say leave them the same... Its mostly preference, exact use of the car, tires ect. ect.

I have been using the Cusco front brackets for 2 years and love them! You can get them here: http://www.napsusa.com/ OR http://www.japanparts.com/db/partsli...ker=27&volkey=

 

Ok, if I was going to run alot of track events I'd probably reduce my rear spring rate a touch. 12/12 would probably be a very stable setup, I'm guessing I'd have more fun at 12/14. But for the OP who is building an autox car 12/12 would suck. I've run those rates on RA-1's and it was very pushy. Just providing my personal experience.

Thanks for the link to those brackets. I've gotta read up though, they may not be SP legal as the pickup points change. Def SM legal though.

John

 

I autocross a fair amount and I have an issue with body roll as seen in the picture below (I know I've posted this before). Notice how one side of the front lip is almost on the ground while the other side is way up in the air. I'm sure it's not great for tire loading and overall grip.



What I probably "need" is about $3,000 worth of coilovers with some strong springs and camber plates to make it right. What I have is about $500 to spend on such things this year. So what I'm going to do is get some front and rear sways and some springs and call it good until next season when I can hopefully afford to take the plunge on some Ohlins at which point I'll re-evaluate the front bar.

My theory is that making the front flatter (less roll) with a stiffer front bar will give my car more overall lateral grip and as a result - faster lap times. I have no idea if I'll be wasting my time and money to do this (by possibly making it handle worse) but I'm willing to give it a go just to see what will happen.

To give a real "measure" of whether or not it helps, I will see if my SCCA PAX placements are better, worse, or no change at all in 2009 compared to my 2008 rankings.

 

Don't forget they recalibrate PAX every year. Sways are an effective way to fix your problem on the cheap. It still won't be as fast as an STU car should be, but it'll be better. Just make sure you do both front and rear so the car doesn't get too pushy in the front.

 

sounds SP legal to me.

 

I'm aware of that but I can't think of a better way to measure results in AutoX. But even that can be skewed based on number of novices and/or number of SAE cars that attend. I suppose the real measure will be how many trophies I win (or don't win) this year compared to last.

Or if, at least, the car feels better and more stable overall I'll consider it beneficial.

 

Agreed, now that I read that section of the rule book. Looks like a cool way to fine tune the front end. Pricing on the website looked about $68 or so.

 

So is there a way to "fix" the evo's suspension to handle like it has front and rear stabilizers, rather than using a "band-aid" by adding the front and rears?
Would it be just adding reallyyy stiff springs/coilovers then?
If so, I think most everyone would rather run springs/struts with stabilizer bars.

 

^^^ Heavy rear sways and rear big spring rates in the rear seems to be the bandaid IMO.

I think you should do those front brackets from Cusco and a light (not heavy duty or thick) Rear sway bar. Cusco 25mm should be fine, or any brand thats can be adjusted. Then do the TRE (Team Rip Racing) Rear Max Lock diff. $375 you pay for shipping. It helps the car turn better to put it short.

Spring rates highly depend on several things. How often you drive on the street with your girl.
How often you go to HPDE NASA events or how often you go to Autocross. If your not a big time tracker, get the bilstien with the swift springs imo, good street/track setup. If you are a big time tracker make sure if you get heavy spring rates (10k or up) make sure the coilover has the valving for it. You only need to go heavy spring rates if you run R comp tires generally.

Hope this helps.

Good Luck

Evan Smith

 

And to mitigate roll you either need very stiff front springs or a front sway bar. . .

Every EVO that has won a National Solo2 Championship has used a larger FSB (except maybe Daddio - not sure on his setup). . . ESP '05, BSP '06, BSP '07, BSPL '07, BSP '08, BSPL '08, SM '08, SML '08, XPL '08 . . .

 

This is a great example of where a stiffer front end can help. Imagine if you push UP on the passenger front corner with either stiffer front spring or stiffer front swaybar - what happens?? That corner of the car moves UP, you gain back some of your lost camber on that corner, and the drivers rear moves DOWN - possibly keeping that floating rear tire in contact with the ground. . .

EVOlutionary

 

Someone help me out. What does this do physically to the sway bar attachment? I just can't picture it. . .