Hotchkis sway bars kit intalled!

[Jose]

Oh my god these are really worth the money, they are great high quality and awesome fitment!

I first install the rear one, and boy you can really tell the diference, the car is really tail happy! Decreases a lot of body roll!
I drove with this one two days so I can asociate with the new change and today I install the front one with a friend of mine and it was a little bit pain in the ass! I install it on a lift this really help a lot.

With the front bar installed the car feels way more balanced than having just the rear one, now the car really loss almost all the body roll it turns like go-kart.

In overall they are really worth it! great improvement!

[damonGTS]

Did you get the race or the street sway bars? I am racing in STS this year with my GTS and I'm not sure which bars to get. thanks

[Angelo]

I have the same dilemma: race or street? I was thinking about rear only, but it looks like you like combo more.

Angelo

[Jose]

I went for the street version.

Go for it! You wont regret it!

[brothermaynard]

What are the specs on those bars.

Diameter vs. stock?
Tube or solid?
install time?
Adjustable?

[J.C.]

Thanx Jose for the kind words on our swaybars.... I know the front is a pain the ass, but the blame goes to the engineers... Who never thought that there was going to be an upgrade in the sway bar dept. We tried to make it as easy as possible for you or your mechanics... And yes, the rear is cake to put in.. I'm really glad you can tell the difference in the way handles with just our sway bar upgrade.... Imagine with our full T.V.S. kit in it...
Full coil over with coils, swaybars, front strut tower brace with integrated camber plates and rear camber links..... That's what I'm talking about... An every day street car that can compete and do very well on hte track... That's what ours is... John Hotchkis still loves to drive the Celica to and from work..... Go figure.!!

[Jose]

No! Thanks to you!

I spoke with a guy named Drew and he really explain it to me very well on how to install it and it work! send him regards!

Hey J.C. I think I will be purchasing later on the front and rear camber thingies! How much on this two?


Thanks again!

[afghan]

How about selling just the rears ONLY, Please!

[scapamouche]

I second Afghan!!!

The handling is so good with just the rear bar, that I don't want to waste the time and energy to put the front bar on!!

[J.C.]

The bars are only sold in sets...This is why : if you just use our rear with the stock front you'll create major oversteer...you might
not feel it at slower speeds but once you do pick up and start to corner at higher speeds you'll notice it BIGTIME....So we made the front as well to compensate for the rear being so agressive... In the process of testing we found that we could make two sets...
A street set and race set.. Both sets have 1" front and rear bars.. But the front bar on hte race set has a bit more inner wall thickness (a bit more material used from the inside out, but still maintaining a 1" outer diameter ) making the bar that much more responsive and agressive on the track...

[scapamouche]

I guess I'll find out at the Track day in June. I mostly drive autox, so low speed matters for me, but I haven't seen any squirrelliness at up to about 75 mph.

[afghan]

That was my next question; What speeds would generate serious oversteer?

Less than 60mph or greater than 60ish?

I want this for autox specific. I don't want to promote more inside wheel spin in turns!

[autxr]

Saying that the rear without the front will cause oversteer isn't entirely correct. It might be correct for their particular setup, but Hotchkis certainly didn't engineer their bar for the folks with custom spring ratios and such. I might have 600 lb springs in the front when they made the bar for a car with 300 lb springs. Big difference.

I drove Andy's car, it pushed, I would have added a rear bar too!

Scott

[J.C.]

The botom line on our front bar is that it bites a whole lot better than stock.... You really cant put a MPH on the oversteer becuase it also matters how the car is set up.!! And yes the bars are made to work with stock spring rates or our coil spring rates...
Front 164-242 Rear 350-380........We use 600 on our muscle car line, which weigh twice as much as a celica....600 on a Celica would be stiffer than a Woody Wood Pecker Hard On!!!!!
But I know thats "NOT" what AUTXR has ...He's just making a good point.. AND POINT WELL TAKEN BY J.C...
Just trying to share some knowledge guys.....

[CloNeGTS]

Alright, concept question though....

Does the larger front bar make the inside tire spin worse? I'd figure with the bar wanting to pull the inside tire up, it would make the lack of LSD worse than it already is.

Any input anyone?

[GTS LAID]

true clone... what you said is exactly what happens.. scott can verify probably

[CloNeGTS]

Damn it....I want to get rid of exactly what J.C. was mentioning about the amount of oversteer at high speed with just the rear bar. It's bad! The rear bar feels great at low speed, the car stays very flat, but as soon as you really start pushing the car, the rear end is all over the place.

If the increase in tire spin was minimal, I'd still consider a front bar because of the obvious handling gains, but I'd think it would have a very negative effect on the tire spin. Of course this is considering autox type cornering.

[autxr]

Yes, a stiffer fornt bar will make inside tire spin worse.

Remember though, in autocross settings, the turns are much sharper, so on a high speed road course this would be less of an issue (my guess, no personal experience). I suspect the only time it would be a hige issue is coming out of tighter turns (hair-pins).

I know a fellow with a GSR that is exceptionally fast on a road course, and he has few complaintes about his open diff, but on the autocross course it is a different story.

Scott

[erok]

I noticed increased tendencies for wheelspin with my street tires (Ecsta Supra 712) in tight turns after installing the TRD Sportivo suspension with stiffer front and rear sway bars. One way to tackle the problem is with stickier tires. I've only done one autox on race tires, but I could get on the gas much earlier w/o any problems then.

Also, my experiences on a road course were that it is basically not an issue except coming out of hairpins as Scott mentions. That was on street tires too.

[GTS LAID]

so perfection would include the two sway bars and an LSD.... here we go baby

[scapamouche]

Just a thought.... My instructor at the school here yesterday (1:1 Teacher/Student ratio BTW :) ) recommended the idea of taking the front bar out of it entirely for autox. Just tie the bar and links out of the way for autox. Then I suppose I could get the other bar installed, without the worry on the autox.

Any thoughts? Experiences? I know that front body roll would increase, but that would tend even more to even out the balance. After the school, I think my car still has slight understeer; mostly neutral, though. And QUICK!!! I was very happy with my times yesterday (I was only 3 sec off of a very good batch of M3s of all eras, they were good for 47sand 48s, I ran 51.5 sec on my best run.)

Oh, and the wife was happy, too. I saw a dramatic change for the better in her driving this weekend. I'd better keep an eye out, she'll be right there with me soon!

[ConeKiller]

If you are going to take the front bar off for AutoX you only have to remove one swaybar link.... and....

Make sure you have some pretty stiff shocks.... the Torque Steer is pretty bad.... trust me, been there done that, and will probably try it again in the future.

Rick

[ConeKiller]

JC,
Whats the chance of getting a smaller then stock front swaybar made? Say something in the range of 3/8 to 1/2 inch?

A desperate Autocrosser trying to get the power down...

Rick Cone

[scapamouche]

Gotta love Teins.........

[J.C.]

The bars will stay at 1"....Reason being, bars are developed more for agressive street and track driving...But I see your point on a smaller bar, to put the power down with more consistency on a tighter course....

[swift 21]

so what everyone is saying is that with these bars you can't make sharp turns . I just ordered mine street set from bottle and i always take corners at 60+ MPH is that not going to be possible know.

[CloNeGTS]

No one is saying it won't be possible....we're just saying the extra lift on the inside wheel will make wheelspin under hard acceleration (or attempting to accelerate, should I say) out of a corner greater.

[GTS LAID]

LSD LSD LSD LSD LSD LSD LSD LSD LSD LSD LSD LSD

[GTS LAID]

oh did i mention you can get a limited slip differential

[CloNeGTS]

You are bored, aren't you?

Honestly, people keep mentioning LSDs and how they are the magic fix but (and maybe this should be a new post), but don't LSDs make it harder to turn when accelerating? Is that just the clutch type?

[swift 21]

so you can make sharp turns without spinning out. right? sorry if i ask so many questions i just don't want to find out the hard way.

[GTS LAID]

new post... and yes i was bored this morning... now i have class in 10 mins... pathology... lovely.