Works has a winner with their new 24mm rear sway bar. After two days of driving the car hard with it installed, I have to say that the car is more balanced front to rear. The behavior is more predictable. Driving over concrete divides on the freeway is no longer head pounding, less bouncy. In other words… stable, which make the car very fun to drive. This is how Mitsubishi should have built the car in the first place.

With the end links placed in the middle hole, the car is neutral, turn in to early, you will bring on a slight push, turn too late and you will oversteer, add a little power and it will straighten right up. You have to drive the apex right to get though the turn quick, just as your suppose to do. The same off ramp I could only take at 40mph with tires howling can now be taken at 50+ mph with no noise at all and without any other changes to the vehicle. The front of the car just has more grip, period. There is no loss in transitional turning.

What more could be said, for the money, a rear sway bar is the best investment you can make to the suspension of your car. The price is a little high at $279.00, but worth every penny. The quality is very good with their forged mounting tip at the end of the bar. The bends are smooth and well thought out, clearance is a little tight however under the cross member, but nothing a little prying can’t cure when cranking down the bolts.

I would buy another if I were to do it again. My next review will be after I install the Tanabe GF210 spring and an alignment and before my first Auto-X.

 

Glad you like it as much as we do!

 

So I have to ask - what makes these sway bars better than other ones? Cuz at this price point, I would hope there is something special about them.

 

How can an anti-sway bar add front grip? I thought it was a device to increase rear spring rate and make the rear lose traction earlier (e.g. to match when the front loses traction and so to balance out understeer)?

 

jansolo,
What I like about this sway bar is the fact Works spent the time to forged the end link mounting points insted of welding them on. Cusco is the only other place I know that dose this. Both Perrin and Progessive weld their ends on. May show a lower grade steel being used. But thats just me. I really prefer forged ends. The other thing i like about this bar is, 24mm. I have never set up a car with a larger sway bar in the rear than in the front. I can't see replacing the front bar, It is already large enough. The front bar will stay stock. So it's a match thing.

ez76,
"How can an anti-sway bar add front grip?" Well that's easy and hard to sum up. To start you have three forms of handling. Understeer, oversteer and neutral. 1.Understeer, this happens when weight transfer is on the rear tires during a turn. Front has little to no grip. 2.Oversteer, Is when the front tires have all the weight transfer (grip) on them and none to little on the rear. 3. Neutral. Is when all 4 tires have the same weight and traction (grip).

A sway bar is designed to fight twist and is mounted on four points. The inside points don't move, only the out side point do. End links are then mounted to the lower control arms. When force is apply to one end of the bar the other end tries to resist this force changing wheel rates not spring rates on the one end only and a reduction in body roll is made. This reduction in body roll to the rear is really more of an increase in weight transfer to the out side tire. Weight transfer is the name of the game here. When a car can be tuned neutral you are applying even weight to the out side tires in a turn at the same time.

Now if we take this and apply it to the USDM Evo 8, driving the car hard will show good and fast turn in. However under mid-corner the car starts to push as well as power on exit. So at mid-corner you get the push (understeer) more gas you apply the harder it now plows. This is not good for fast cornering.

By adding an adjustable rear sway bar it's not that you are taking away traction on the rear, it’s just being evened out. That’s how a sway bar can add front grip. I know this is a simple explanation. It does get more complex. Hope this helps.

 

Thanks, I see what you're saying!

 

Tri-Bar - Where will you be auto-xing?

Rick

 

Castle AFB Atwater, Ca March 7th. Will be there all day.

 

Cool, we might be there this weekend to spectate so we’ll look you up. Most of our March weekends are already committed to other things so we won’t start racin’ until April. That’s O.K. because I need to square away a few more things before we’re 100% ready.

I’d like to check out the sway bar as well. I’ve been puttin’ in a bunch of seat time and find that for me I’d like the tail to loosen up just a bit. Beyond that tires are the only other change I plan on making in the handling department.

We’ve joined the SCCA and will be running in ESP, both of us rank beginners in this form of driving but then our immediate focus is to have fun and learn to drive better.

Hope to see you there.

Rick

 

Hope to see you there. I wont be to hard to find me, just look for two white Mustangs with a white Evo parked next to them. One Mustang will have Tri-Bar Motorsports on it.