this may be of interest to those of you that autocross and/or track the NSX rather heavily:
one of the drawbacks of competing on the stock spring rates (i cannot change that in my competition class) while using HIGH GRIP hoosier A6 tires is that the car rolls a LOT! this is bad for multiple reasons... the car flops from side to side in transitions, there's a lot of diving/squatting under braking/acceleration, very delayed reactions and the car never really takes a set, and lifting the inside rear wheel under trail braking as the rear suspension runs out of droop. the cure/treatment for the problems is well-known; a big front sway bar.
i already had a bigger-than-stock front sway bar in the car; the 1" diameter hollow daliracing "track bar" with multiple bends (to clear the spare tire and battery tray). it has a bar rate in the 250-300 lbs/inch range. this was NOT sufficient for my needs as i have been lifting the inside rear tire under heavy trail braking and getting a LOT of inside rear wheel spin on corner exit (stock diff, cannot change it). the daliracing track bar was the largest "off the shelf" bar i could find for the NSX. dali does also list the trophy bar (500-650 lbs/inch), but it didn't seem to be in stock any more, and after waiting/searching for a couple of months, it was time to look for a custom solution.
enter andris laivins, of laivins race cars (http://www.laivins.com/). andris has built up one hell of a reputation as a perfectionist and a meticulous race engineer, fabricator, builder, and badass. he regularly travels with and supports the CJ Wilson race team in the efforts in the playboy MX5 cup and continental grand am series. we are lucky to have him in the austin area, and i decided to pay him a visit. i'll save you the gory details, but the end result is that andris built me a 1.25" diameter, .25" wall hollow nascar-style splined bar, with custom engineered sway bar arms to clear the rest of the suspension (with multiple mounting holes to fine tune the bar rate), and spherical mount endlinks. the end result is a bar with a range from 660-960 lbs/inch. not only that, the center section of the bar can be easily swapped out with readily available center sections of different diameters and wall thicknesses to give near endless possibilities for minimal additional cost (each center sections costs about $75).
i got my first taste of the bar at an autocross this past weekend, and it has transformed the car! i can now be much more aggressive without the car turning into a flopping super loose beast
full details and driving impressions here: http://nsxftw.blogspot.com
one of the drawbacks of competing on the stock spring rates (i cannot change that in my competition class) while using HIGH GRIP hoosier A6 tires is that the car rolls a LOT! this is bad for multiple reasons... the car flops from side to side in transitions, there's a lot of diving/squatting under braking/acceleration, very delayed reactions and the car never really takes a set, and lifting the inside rear wheel under trail braking as the rear suspension runs out of droop. the cure/treatment for the problems is well-known; a big front sway bar.
i already had a bigger-than-stock front sway bar in the car; the 1" diameter hollow daliracing "track bar" with multiple bends (to clear the spare tire and battery tray). it has a bar rate in the 250-300 lbs/inch range. this was NOT sufficient for my needs as i have been lifting the inside rear tire under heavy trail braking and getting a LOT of inside rear wheel spin on corner exit (stock diff, cannot change it). the daliracing track bar was the largest "off the shelf" bar i could find for the NSX. dali does also list the trophy bar (500-650 lbs/inch), but it didn't seem to be in stock any more, and after waiting/searching for a couple of months, it was time to look for a custom solution.
enter andris laivins, of laivins race cars (http://www.laivins.com/). andris has built up one hell of a reputation as a perfectionist and a meticulous race engineer, fabricator, builder, and badass. he regularly travels with and supports the CJ Wilson race team in the efforts in the playboy MX5 cup and continental grand am series. we are lucky to have him in the austin area, and i decided to pay him a visit. i'll save you the gory details, but the end result is that andris built me a 1.25" diameter, .25" wall hollow nascar-style splined bar, with custom engineered sway bar arms to clear the rest of the suspension (with multiple mounting holes to fine tune the bar rate), and spherical mount endlinks. the end result is a bar with a range from 660-960 lbs/inch. not only that, the center section of the bar can be easily swapped out with readily available center sections of different diameters and wall thicknesses to give near endless possibilities for minimal additional cost (each center sections costs about $75).
i got my first taste of the bar at an autocross this past weekend, and it has transformed the car! i can now be much more aggressive without the car turning into a flopping super loose beast
full details and driving impressions here: http://nsxftw.blogspot.com
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