Sways vs Camber Arms??
 

Need some advice from our serious track members.

I track my car about 3-4 times per year and have not done any suspension modifications yet. I have been considering the purchase of some sways and have done a lot of research about them....especially based on what I have seen and heard on this forum about the handling improvements they can provide. Yesterday I was talking with one of my instructors and told him I was thinking about changing the sways for my next event. He told me that he thought my money would be better spent on front camber arms. In his opinion, the Z already has a very good suspension on it and it is fairly neutral from the factory. He thought that by adding a degree or two of camber to the front wheels would provide me a better benefit than sways. Opinions??

Not sure what to do now :confused:

Add a poll!!!

Sway bars!

May do that....but am interested to hear folks thoughts as well as their vote.

So why do you recommend sways over camber arms?

Front bar... And front arms.

Sways first. I wouldn't worry about the camber arms until you swap out the springs. You'll enjoy the sways every time you drive the car.

That's a first... Front bar adds under steer...
Why?

Exactly!

As you have mentioned in several posts (and when we spoke last year in Smyrna), you recommend the stiffest bar I can find on the front. From what I have found, that is a Hotchkis at about 300% stiffer. If I also remember correctly, you recommended a Nismo rear sway which is only about 30% stiffer than stock. I assume that is to keep the independent rear suspension still a little 'independent' and to keep the tires planted more firmly on exit. If I follow your advice, the Hotchkis rear is way too firm at about 75% stronger than stock.

If I go with sways...I may need to see if I can find a Hotchkis front and a Nismo or Stillen rear. Is this still your advice?

What don't you like about how the car handles?

It's far more instructive to decide on mods based on what you want to fix. My personal lean would be towards giving yourself camber control up front to try and dial out some of the understeer.

I ran Eibach sways (front and rear) with factory camber and while I could feel the difference it wasn't until I got front camber arms and dialed in about -2.1 camber upfront that the car really "woke up" in my opinion.

Also I think the consensus among many on this forum is that the Hotchkis bar upfront is too much unless you're running r-comp tires.

The one other thing that made a huge difference in my opinion was ditching the factory offset tire setup and going to a square setup. Not sure what your budget is but a set of track wheels with 285 or 295 wide tires all around might be worth considering too.

I would do the sway bars first...then do the camber arms once you upgrade springs/coilovers and then really dial in the suspension alignment. ;)

Scott

Front bar does not add understeer....complete misconception...
Front bar will stabilize the front end...and add rear grip center off.
On a car that you have ZERO control/ adjustment of the front camber...you need all the roll control you can throw at it.
And then even when you have that...you still need it.
Our front bar on the RC is more than 2x the stiffness of any aftermarket bar... And thats the old bar.

Buckeye...
Yes Id go with either Hotchkis or Whiteline front...and a Nismo rear.

Just for reference...Hotchkis front bar tested at our shop about 980 lbs per inch.... Food for thought.

how does the whiteline bar compare to the hotchkis front bar stiffness wise?