Eric F

Anyone else order the AWR rear swaybar from Mazda Motorsport? Brian said they should be shipping out this week. I can't wait to get this installed. It's stiffer than the rear MP3 bar and should really get rid of some of the understeer.

Eric F

That's where the MazdaSpeed adjustable struts come in. I also have a front strut bar which should help a bit. I'll really find out how much oversteer I've got when it snows here.

Eric F

The front struts have four settings and the rear have five. I have the front set to one (softest), and the rear set to 2 right now. I haven't played with them much yet though, until I get the rear sway bar installed.

Eric F

Even the 3rd gen Protege sedans come stock with significant understeer. The front strut tower bar only slightly added to this. It affected steering response much more positively, IMHO. I did get my car a bit more neutral by stiffening the rear struts relative to the front, and running slightly higher rear tire pressure. When I get the AWR rear sway bar, I'll have to adjust those things to keep it neutral. Now I need the Quaife LSD! Blue

Eric F

The AWR rear bar came in the mail today. I was really surprised to find that the bar is adjustable. It has two different tabs for mounting the end links. I don't recall AWR or Mazda Motorsports mentioning it was adjustable. I was also surprised by how light the bar was for it's size. I really like the idea of using a larger diameter bar for stiffness, while making it hollow to keep the weight down. The bar looks great, more like a production piece than custom made. It has gloss black paint, which I like so it won't stand out too much from behind the car. I'll install it tomorrow and give an update on the handling.

Ben_D

Eric did you ever install the rear sway bar. Let me know i am fixing to order one. wanna see how it works out.

Ben Dean
http://protege000.tripod.com

Eric F

I started to, but one of the nuts on the driver side end link was stuck. I didn't have enough time to mess with it, so I put the stock one back on. Hopefully, I'll get to it this weekend. I did notice a couple of things about it worth pointing out though. First, the AWR bar doesn't have the slight bend in the center section between the frame brackets to clear the rear subframe that the stock bar has. Second, the bar comes with new frame brackets only, no end links or bushings. The new frame brakets are wider than the stock bushings, and the new bar is larger than the stock one, so I'm kind of suspicious about how the stock bushings are going to fit. I called MazdaMotorsports about this, and they said they'd never had problems with bar to subframe clearance, but they used custom bushings, so if I have problems with the stock ones, let them know. They'll get AWR to supply new bushing or brackets.

biknman

Anybody know if the front and rear sway bars from a Sport 20 being offer by Mazda Motor Sports for Gen3 Pros is and upgrade or just an OEM replacement. I can not find Specs on the Sport 20 sway bars anywhere. Also anybody got any comments on the performance of the AWR or MP3 sway bars over the OEM ones on Gen3s?
Thanks

Eric F

I'm hoping to get time this weekend to install the AWR rear bar. I'll give another update after I do. The bar looks great and should help reduce understeer tremendously. The adjustablity was a welcome surprise.

MP3-Owner

I thought that Racing Beat had to beef up the Mounts for the sway bars that they installed? So you are saying that the MP3 sway bars are a direct bolt on but how? If you have to have better mounts? Hmm... I am just thinking out loud.

Eric F

Both Sport 20 bars available from Mazda Motorsports are only 1mm thicker than stock. The MP3 bars are 25mm front, 20mm rear. They won't come with reinforcments for the struts. Those would need to be custom made and welded to the strut bodies. The AWR rear bar is 3/4" thick, and adjustable via two different mounting locations on the bar for the stock end links. The front bar on the Protege is extremely difficult to change. The bar is mounted above the front subframe that holds the engine and transaxle in place, and is impossible to remove with out dropping the subframe.