i know alot of people remove the rear sway bar because it messes up handling with stock suspension. my first question is why does the stock one hurts handling? next, if you are upgrading the entire suspension system, is it better to have no sway bar or to install an aftermarket one?

 

in my opinion, either keep the sway bar or replace it with an aftermarket one for performance. you will get lots of oversteer with no swaybar and body roll from the rear. it was put there to help control the oversteer. i would replace it with an aftermarket one and use polyurethane bushings.

 

 

Oh God, Dont remove the sway bar unless you want to have a boat! I had a friend who bought a Rx-7 and it handled like ****, he didnt know why, Then I checked it out and of course, their was no sway bar.

 

SE's came stock with a rear stabilizer bar, and this was done to help keep the car tracking straight under heavy cornering. If you don't run a rear stabilizer (and I know that many Autocrossers don't), then the car will be unbalanced in stock trim. There's a reason why Mazda added stabilizer bars to all 84 and up RX-7's, and it's to improve handling.

Was just going through some of my old Rotary Rocket magazines and they were doing an article on improving the performance of an 84GS compared to the 84SE. The started by adding aftermarket stabilizers, front and rear, then added Koni struts/shocks, Weds wheels (14x6), and then RB header, PP muffler.

In the end, they were able to beat the stock SE by a slim margin - keep in mind this is a highly modified GS compared to a stock SE:

GS - stock - slalom=57.3mph, skidpad=.765, 0-30=3.0, 0-60=9.7, 0-80=16.1, 1/4 mile in 17.1s.

SE - stock - slalom=61.1mph, skidpad=.879, 0-30=2.6, 0-60=8.5, 0-80=14.4, 1/4 mile in 16.4s.

Reference article is "Gearing your RX-7 for Higher Performance" Rotary Rocket Magazine, Sept, 1984, Voume 6, Issue 3, page 53.

I think that the figures around skidpad are valid that having a rear stabilizer bar, in stock trim, is a good idea. My own experience from autocrossing is that having an adjustable rear stabilizer is even better, and definitely improves performance at the limit. The rear bar helps to make the oversteering more predictable and removing it could get you into snap oversteer which leads to wrecked cars. HTH,

 

All rx-7's had sway bars stock. As a matter of fact the 79-80 ones are bigger. Mazda downsized the rear bars on 81-up to remedy the snap oversteer problem and it helped to an extent.

 

Lets just all agree to keep the sway bar unless you are upgrading to an after market one!

 

Removing the rear swaybar causes understeer not oversteer!

And telling him to add an aftermarket rear swaybar (which are often stiffer) without even knowing what he's done to the front end is just stupid. That could cause some very ugly handling.

 

well i made a mistake here. unersteer, not oversteer. forgive me. i suggested an aftermarket swaybar and bushings because they have worked well for me with NO mods to the front. i do not autocross so i am no handling god. i like the improved performance i get out of the swaybar and bushings. it is a bit more tail happy but for MY driving, i like it. and yes i agree it is better to do both front and rear at the same time for balanced handling.

 

if it screws up the handling, why do they do it?

 

australian hate rear stabilizer, but american don't
why why why~

 

I don't have a rear bar...but then again I don't have much thats stock anymore either

 

Because it doesn't. Removing the rear bar allows for more suspension travel, making the rear end more predictable and reducing oversteer, just like Revhead stated. Removing the bar is just a sort of quick fix that doesn't address teh real problem, binding. The upper links and the Watts link tend to bind under cornerning, making the car snap oversteer. The rear bar exacerbates this problem. There are a couple of solutions that can be used:

Check out the products from Jim Susko at G-Force Engineering. He has a kit that replaces the upper links with a 3rd link and the Watts link with a Panhard rod, greatly improving rear suspension geometry.

For the racers on a budget, RX7Carl has proposed using nylock nuts to force the links to rotate as opposed to bind, allowing for a more compliant rear suspension and less binding. Check out his site at www.pbandjracing.com for the details.

I've autocrossed with the rear bar on and without it. The removal of the bar does not 'unbalace' the car, rather it helps plant the rear end better. My lap times were improved with the bar off because of the more compliant rear suspension.

 

what is snap oversteer?

 

Oversteer = lower traction in the rear of a car than the front causing the car to slide or become loose.
Snap = sudden.

Put it together and its not a good thing.