Miata Mailing List: February 1995, Message #116
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   From: Steve Ling 
Subject: Re: AUTOX - Which front sway bar?
   Date: Thu, 2 Feb 1995 14:41:48 -0500

On Tue, 31 Jan 1995, Joe Murphy wrote:

> I am considering of adding a front sway bar to my CS 92 Miata. This will be
> my second season, so I need advice. Last season I spun more than once with
> oversteer in fast/medium speed corners, so I would like to tighten up the
> rear of the car without adding too much understeer.

 This is a few days old (I'm still catching up on my mail after vacation) 
but I had to respond. 

 Let me tell you my experience. At the end of my first season of autox (in
Texas then) I had the same idea. I got the Suspension Techniques
(adjustable) front sway bar. I started on the softest setting. On the
street it felt great.  But at my next autox it was terrible. I plowed
around every corner and was much slower. I took it off when I got home.
(It's still in the box if anyone in N.Cal. wants to try it.) Next autox 
had a school the day before so I went. They had a 70 foot skid pad set up. 
Guess what? With the stock sway bar in a steady-state circle THERE AIN'T 
NO OVERSTEER. Neutral as can be. I even took tire temps that showed close 
to the same max temp on front and rear on the outside side of the car. 
For reference, I have Yoko 205/55 RSIIs and Tokico adj shocks. By timing 
the laps and doing a little math, my best run was around 0.95G. Front 
camber is about 0.7, rear about 1.0.

 Later in the school I began to experiment with CAUSING oversteer by 
lifting the throttle and/or braking in a turn and CAUSING understeer by 
exceeding the optimum slip angle on the tires (coming into a corner too 
fast and scrubbing off speed). This was a major discovery for me that 
after tires and maybe shocks the driver is the next item to work on. 

 Hey, you did ask for advice :)
                                [][][]
  Steve Ling           "During the race, try to drive a little faster than
  sling@netcom.com      is enjoyable; you cannot go really fast without
  San Jose, CA          frightening yourself occasionally" -- Paul Frere