r/rallycross • u/shatlking • Oct 15 '24
Question Thicker/stiffer sway bar?
After crawling under my 08 WRX hatch, I was grabbing the rear sway bar and it felt like the bushings may be on their way out, not to mention the rust and paint peeling. I’ve already been looking into new struts/coils, but I’m now thinking maybe some new sway bars wouldn’t hurt. But, for Rallycross, should I run a thicker/stiffer sway bar, or something with more give? I’d assume a thicker sway bar would be beneficial, as the car would resist body roll without losing too much suspension travel (if any). I’m already in Mod All, so anything goes really.
3
u/pdarkfred Oct 15 '24
Depends on the surface.
I keep mine disconnected and ziptied up out of the way. I've been running no sways for a few seasons now but always have the option. If there is a rough course and you need more compliance it's perfect to leave them off, if it becomes hard packed and flat then the sways are an option to reconnect (one or both).
Just change one thing at a time and see how it plays with your driving style and the surface you're racing on, rinse and repeat.
3
u/Numl3ah1 Oct 20 '24
Are you on lift springs? Are your differentials still open?
Im in PA with a 12 wrx hatch. Its on kings lift springs with 21mm the 19mm rear sway bars b.c my diffs are open but its incredibly rough. Car drives really good though. When i move to mod and can put a limited slip rear diff in my car, i will absolutely be going to the group n 18mm front and back to the 16mm rear wrx sway bar.
1
u/shatlking Oct 20 '24
Stock springs/struts (although, I’m planning on swapping to coils/different struts in the future). I’m also on stock diffs, most likely open.
I’ll look into those though
2
u/Numl3ah1 Oct 20 '24
In the meanwhile, you could see if the 19mm sti rear sway bar will fit the narrow body. It would help with body roll and also helpnwith understeer, and if it does fit, it should be cheap. Im not sure you should go bigger then that tho
1
u/shatlking Oct 20 '24
I do some autocross in my car as well, plus it’s my daily, I think STi would be a good happy medium for all of that. I like how my car feels in autocross (and Rallycross) except all the body roll, so I concur there.
1
u/Numl3ah1 Oct 20 '24
Well your 08 wrx has mega soft springs, so any replacement will be stiffer. With that being the case, id stick with oem bars.
Theres a Facebook group for our cars; 08-14 wrx sti rally cross. Its very lively but i asked like 13 people in there and anyone who wasnt on some badass rally suspension was on KYB's, Kings, and OEM bars. I think the kings are too stiff but with the open diffs, its eliminating body roll and making it faster.
1
u/shatlking Oct 20 '24
I’ve heard, might knick some STi springs; although I may also pick up a sedan rear sway bar. KYBs have seemed like the immediate response, might end up going with them. Will look into joining that group as well.
1
u/Ajinho Oct 15 '24
How would you like to change the handling compared to how it handles now?
1
u/shatlking Oct 15 '24
I don’t necessarily have much experience to know, I need more seat time. That said, if there’s an “upgrade” to be made, might as well do it. Or I’ll just replace the bushings. Getting less body roll (especially for when I autocross the car) would be good however.
1
u/babybunny1234 Oct 16 '24
If there’s anything like the 02 wagon, the rear sway bar is softer than the sedan which means that the car understeers and is hard to turn.
It’s a big upgrade to install someone’s old sedan swaybar and it’ll make the car feel completely different. More neutral (like the sedan) and you can get it to oversteer which is great for rallycross (IMO. Depends on your preferred driving style but it works great for me)
If you have wider tires than stock, you may need a stiffer sway bar because the tires are too grippy. An adjustable one is a good idea.
1
u/shatlking Oct 16 '24
It absolutely understeers a ton yeah, couldn’t get it to oversteer except on gravel. I’ll look into an adjustable one, maybe of a similar caliber to the sedans then. Do you know if the Impreza Sedans use the same as the WRX?
2
u/babybunny1234 Oct 16 '24 edited Oct 16 '24
Oops, I meant the rear sway bar from the WRX sedan. Or just look at the millimeters of that stock one and get an adjustable one that goes stiffer/thicker.
The stock wrx sedan one was perfect for my original tires. When I got wider tires, I needed a stiffer bar: https://whitelineperformance.com/products/bsr57z-sway-bar-22mm-3-point-adjustable … I forget what I have it set to :)
That’ll get you turning nicely. Be sure to warn other drivers if you share the car, because the car will be more skittish and could surprise someone who is used to understeer. (This happened to me)
2
u/shatlking Oct 16 '24
I figured, as I have a WRX. I was just hoping I could steal one off of a nearby junkyard Impreza Sedan. I’m willing to bet that my tire width is wider than stock though, I’ll definitely look into it (after I get some boost issues sorted lol). Might also need to screw around in a parking lot during winter, an empty one of course.
1
u/Funny-Patient3360 Oct 28 '24
I drive an 08 STI and the best suspension mod i did for Rallycross was to remove the front sway bar. I still run the stock rear one to this day. I really really like my king lift springs and gt Worx (Bilstein) struts. They have them at primitive racing.
1
u/shatlking Oct 28 '24
Does the front sway bar affect daily driving? It’s my daily (and Autocross car actually) so I’m not sure if I’d want to remove mine
2
u/Funny-Patient3360 Oct 28 '24
I don’t daily mine. I drive it on the street occasionally and it still feels fine. I have also done autocross with it and I like not having a front seat bar for that too. The one issue I found was high speed sweepers at a track day. It felt twitchy and wanted to slide a lot.
2
u/shatlking Oct 28 '24
Maybe I’ll try disconnecting it at the next event. Unfortunately, my season is over until spring. Good time to do some work on the car though
3
u/HossTM Oct 15 '24
My advice is basically what my mentor told me: go for an adjustable sway bar so you have the 2 or 3 optional end link holes to fine-tune it with your suspension when needed. For my GR86, I went with one that's merely 1mm thicker than my front OEM sway bar (which still stiffens a fair amount at its softest setting).