Miata Mailing List: May 1993, Message #119
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   From: (none)
Subject: Re: stabilizer bar
   Date: (none)


On Mon, 17 May 1993, Mary E Daniel wrote:

> With my 1st extend trip coming up, I was wondering if anyone with a
> '90 or '91 has put on the rear stabilizer bar.  If so, do you really
> notice appreciable difference in aftershock vibrations over bumps, etc?

I know one local guy who's put the brace on. He says it makes a
difference. The car is more stable over bumps. It also understeers a bit
more. His feeling is, you win some and you lose some, and this one came
out dead even.

> And for the autoX experts, would adding the bar move me out of stock
> class even though it's now stock on the new models?

Absolutely. The aftermarket stabilizer bar is not the same as the OEM
item. It provides both a brace at the bottom of the rear subframe, to
prevent the rear subframe from flexing by getting wider at the bottom, it
also has a diagonal brace which prevents parallelograming. (sp?) This is
the tendency of a more-or-less rectangular frame with no bracing to
collapse along a diaginal that has compression applied to it. And even if
it were identical to the stock item, the rules specifically prohibit
updating/backdating of parts. 

--
Ken

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  Ken Warren             |"Nothing good has ever been reported about the
                         | full rotation of a race car about either its
  E-Mail: kenw@netaxs.com| pitch or roll axis."            Carroll Smith
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