Swaybars & torsion bars - Corksport, Racing Beat, or other?

Hey all,

Planning to buy a sway bar setup for my 2, and looking for experiences / impressions of the Corksport and Racing Beat sets from folks who have installed either or both.

Also if there's another set out there that would be recommended as an alternative, I'm always open to that as well.

I do plan to get both the front swaybar and rear torsion bar whichever way I go.

Thanks!

murch

www.ddmworks.com


I run their rear torsion beam. Its a bit stiffer than CS, and made of steel(not aluminum which cracks). Its not as stiff as the RB bar.


I don't run a front sway bar at all so no comment there. I may try welding tabs on the lower control arm to run the stock bar, at a lower motion ratio so it'll be about 1/3 as stiff as stock location... But I'm not too motivated to screw with that while its so hot outside.

Cool, thanks for the input.

This is my daily driver, and I do have 2 kids that will occasionally be in the back, so I don't want a teeth-rattling ride, but I do want something that handles well when I'm out for a drive or at the odd auto-x.

I'm particularly interested in the real world difference between the 1" diameter Racing Beat (claim 3.19 times stiffer) and the 7/8" (same diameter as stock) Corksport (claim 85% stiffer) front swaybar.

I had Racing Beat bars on my '04 Mazda 3 and loved them - but the price difference and difference in shipping cost is not insignificant between the two.

I've looked briefly at the DDMworks bar. Has it noticeably changed the balance and feel of the car?

Racing Beat, whether self-servingly or not, claim that without the combo of front and rear bars, the stress on the rear bar installed alone may cause a failure.

murch said:

Cool, thanks for the input.

This is my daily driver, and I do have 2 kids that will occasionally be in the back, so I don't want a teeth-rattling ride, but I do want something that handles well when I'm out for a drive or at the odd auto-x.


I understand that. FWIW I daily drive on 700/450lb springs. 100 miles per day. I've put 30k miles on it like that. It is definitely rough as hell and if I'd known I was going to be moving and commuting as much as I do, I wouldn't have built the coilover I did honestly.


I'm particularly interested in the real world difference between the 1" diameter Racing Beat (claim 3.19 times stiffer) and the 7/8" (same diameter as stock) Corksport (claim 85% stiffer) front swaybar.


Their numbers are pretty sound.

Stock sway bar(19mm) has around 350lbs of roll resistance, 25.4mm Racing Beat bar is around 1100lbs of roll resistance. 22mm Corksport bar is about 630lbs based on the numbers I've run through a calculator. The difference from 19mm to 25.4mm should be worth something like 0.3 degrees of body roll. It doesn't sound like much, but it's a lot when you think that is the difference in camber you'd need to run to keep the same contact patch.



I had Racing Beat bars on my '04 Mazda 3 and loved them - but the price difference and difference in shipping cost is not insignificant between the two.

I've looked briefly at the DDMworks bar. Has it noticeably changed the balance and feel of the car?


The DDMWorks bar was one of the first things I did to my 2. It makes a massive difference.


Racing Beat, whether self-servingly or not, claim that without the combo of front and rear bars, the stress on the rear bar installed alone may cause a failure.


I agree that is some shenanigans. A sway bar can only transfer as much weight as what is on the inside wheel. My car lifted the inside rear wheel even 100% bone stock with no sway bar changes, and on crappy tires.

A stiffer sway bar will lift the tire sooner, but it doesn't change how much weight is being applied to the beam.

Click to expand...

My replies in red.



FWIW playing around with spring rates and sway bars on my own build, I've basically found that adding rear spring rate alone obviously makes the rear end come around more overall... and adding more rear sway bar changes how abruptly or the severity at which it comes around when lifting off the throttle.


I've found that 700/550 springs with no sway bars works well in super wet/standing water type conditions, or wet/damp conditions on a crappy lot.

700/700 no bars works well in wet/damp but not standing water type conditions on what is normally a reasonably grippy surface. Can get hairy on a slick lot with lots of standing water.

700/700 with DDMWorks rear bar I just recently found seems to be the money ticket on grippy concrete. The car comes around quickly when I lift the throttle or stab the brakes, but never to the point of being uncontrollable.

The biggest difference is that heavier rear springs allow the inside front tire to stay planted SO much better... the sway bar on paper should do this, but our rear sway bars must first act on the rear beam's bushings before it does anything... so it tends to amplify the squish of the bushings. Adding rear spring acts directly on the chassis so seems to be a bit more predictable overall.

You can check out my build thread in my signature if you want to delve into some of the other suspension crap I've played with.



IMO if I were trying to make it feel better as a daily driver/casual autocrosser I'd lower it with whatever you plan on buying, get a DDMWorks rear bar, see what you think. From there I'd probably go for a Corksport FSB myself. Get camber bolts for the front to add 2-2.5 deg of camber. The only issue this setup should have is lots of fore-aft roll under braking(not a huge deal in itself), and the front sway bar will be attempting to pick the inside front tire off the ground so getting power down early will not really happen.

If you're not going to get aggressive with spring rates, I'd recommend the ddmworks rear bar and the CS front bar. When I had racing beat springs and the CS rear bar, and then added the CS front bar I noticed a significant improvement (mainly turn-in, but it also made the rear more playful). CS replaced my rear bar for free when the 1st one cracked, and my 2nd one has not cracked yet.

You guys might be interested in ultraracing.my and hardrace.com. They also have braces and bars, hardrace has suspension arms and bushing.

Thanks for all of the input, folks.

Ride quality is a huge consideration for me, so I don't want to go too aggressive. I'm willing to sacrifice a bit for the sake of performance, but again, this is my DD.

I've currently got Eibach Prokit springs installed (137 F, 77/114 R), so not really approaching the spring rates you're using, Flatlander. I think these are a good middle ground, even though the rates are probably close to stock (have never seen the stock spring rates).

Why the DDMWorks rear brace over the Corksport? Is there any distinct advantage, or will the cost savings of buying the package of both front & rear through Corksport outweigh the possible benefits that the DDMWorks might offer?

Being in Canada, shipping cost is a factor as well. It's not cheap to ship here, and I'll basically be doubling my shipping cost to go with two separate manufacturers.

The ddmworks bar is stiffer, and nobody has broken one. There have been multiple reported failures of the corksport rear bar, which were replaced for free. I believe you have to enlarge a couple bolt holes for the ddmworks bar. There's also the racing beat rear bar which is the stiffest of the 3, I think. Nobody's broken one of those either. You'll just have to decide if you want to pay more to get a stronger part, or pay less and potentially have to do some extra work to replace it if it breaks.

I bought a CorkSport rear torsion bar, simply because of the ease of install. No drilling required. However, I may buy myself a DDM Works bar in the future, both for the extra insurance of steel vs aluminum, and to support a great company that still makes parts for our (relatively) unpopular car.

That said, I really like my CS bar. Handling is vastly improved over stock. The car is flat in corners, with very predictable handling characteristics. Turn-in is much sharper, the car will easily (but progressively) rotate with a lift of the throttle, and you really only get some understeer if you overcook it.