bamflee84

I was curious if anyone out there has had the chance to drive with both sway bar set ups and can tell which one made a bigger difference. I have a 03 protege with eibach pro, tokico blues, awr 19mm sway bar, obx strut tower. I just recently put in the awr sway bar but did not feel that big of a difference from the stock sway bar that comes with the es protege. I'm not sure if its maybe the set up that i have it on or that maybe there is no real big difference. For those to know the set up, i have the double tab bar, with the adjustable endlinks. That sway bar set up is that the endlinks are connected to the bar on the outside of the closer tab to the driver. The other end of the endlink is connected to the outside of the strut tab. I tried to connect the enlink to the inside of the strut tab but it made a couple of noises so i changed it back. Any information on any of the topics would help a bunch. Thanks guys.

macdaddyslomo

from what i hear the racing beat is the best setup available, but you should really have both front and rear

rustychops41

I think the RB rear bar is 20MM. Probably lighter too, since it doesn't have the arms extended for a "soft" setting option. AWR's bar is hollow, but not very hollow. I cut mine off behind the "stiff" tabs due to a lateral-link clearance issue, and only about 1/8" of the center is indeed hollow. One exception to the "use both F/R bars" rule: If you are an auto-x maniac, adding a larger bar only in the rear can be beneficial in a FWD car.

macdaddyslomo

I'm talking for a 100% neutral handling car...I know your lookng to be able to get that oversteer...or is it understeer...I always get those terms confused

Racing Beat

I have the RB front and rear bars, neutral is the word...the car is super stable and fun

fpa1974

Oversteer is when your rear end has the tendency of stepping out in a turn. You can also help it out (the rear end to rotate) with different techniques like trail braking (start braking before a turn but continue braking while turning), lifting in the middle of the turn or even tapping the brakes in the middle of the turn (please do not try these techniques while on the street for the very first time - find a controlled environment if you really want to try them out). All these work since FWD cars (and not only) usually understeer from the factory (or push which is the tendency of a car of going straight instead of turning - when you want it to turn). Understeer is considered safer for most people that are not skilled in car dynamics and this is why most of the cars come from the factory with that built in. Understeer is usually really counter productive for autoX or any other performance driving events.

Florian

rustychops41

Yeah, I wasn't disagreeing with you at all macdaddy, just adding that one 2-cent "not-for-everybody"option. I'd probably do 'em both if I didn't auto-x so much. Well, OK , I'd pay someone to do the front one, I hear it's a Royal Bitch. It's weird though, you can have a nice neutral car for the street, but then you take it auto-xing, and really drive it with that final "push over the cliff" aggressiveness, and its "Dammm! Car's pushing again!" Probably the differences in speed and how tight the corners are in most solo II stuff. BTW, macd, you amaze me sometimes, the stuff you find/figure out from other cars/makes/models that fit the Protege.

macdaddyslomo

Yeah, notice the whole Pocket Tuner part of my title...it's all about trying to mod a car on a budget...I ain't modding with mommy and daddy's money...I gotta figure out how to do it and pay my rent,electric,car payment, insurance,cable, water, eat, and keep a girlfriend...plus when i got my car the only thing they made for a 1.6L Pro was a $300 intake(at the time) by Injen