Racing Beat has provided a lot of good products for our cars for many years. They have also done a good job of supporting the rotary community.

That being said, I really don't care too much for the owner. In my limited experience with him, I found him to be a condescending liar. Not a nice guy at all. Of course, maybe that comes from years of dealing with people like us :D :rlaugh::rlaugh::rlaugh::rlaugh:

I also have the RB bars! About the rear issue, don't these look similar? (RB top - MS bottom)

I'll even say that the MS one looks worse as it contacts the shock sooner thet the RB one? Or my eyes deceive me?

https://www.rx7club.com/attachment.p...d=226487&stc=1

This may help explain why there is contact with the RacingBeat rear Bar. Then again maybe not. I check for contact and did not find any with the Mazdaspeed rear bar. That aside. The car drives much better with a tempered rear sway bar than with one that is not.

wow thank god for this thread i just cancled my order for theses im looking into the mazdaspeeds

Is there any problem with the RB front sway bar? All I Have thus far is the front. If a better combination could be achieved with a different brand rear bar, I would rather go that way. I guess I was going off of reputation when I ordered the front bar (and support piece). The whole non-tempered thing scares me. I thought tempering was a necessary part of creating spring steel?

That's what they told me... LOL... Trust me, I do know how to install a bolt and use a torque wrench. (righty tighty correct?) Followed instruction sheet to the letter.

I don't think a search would reveal many RB past problems, I had a RB bar on my '91 T-II, autocrossed & tracked it for 3 years and never had an issue...

What upsets me is they are saying I didn't install it correctly and that is BS.

I've had a pair on my car now for a couple of years and noticed better handling over the 94 Touring OEM's. I also installed Tokicos and Eibachs at the same time.

I did however have a problem with side to side ride height. On the rear the retaining clamps(to prevent lateral movement) were not correct and caused a drop on the left side. The whole bar was shifted to the drivers side by about an inch. I have pics, but I'm not at that computer to paste. I never had a rubbing issue since i used the inner holes.

I actually have the car jacked up for the ever so fun fuel filter change and am going to take another look and see if mine are bent.

My front bar was shifted to the driver's side also, but I figured it was because the end bolt had worked loose & pulled out. I will be removing the bar to inspect it for bends when I get time. If Doc-1's bar was not tempered, he may not be the only one with the problem.

Racing Beat
 

Guys,

I will take a look into this and let you know what I find out. This post has me scratching my head a bit, we have sold well over 500 of these sets over the years and we have had extremely few complaints.

Although forums are a great way to discuss issue, man, sometime these things really take off and snowball into something that just is without merit. Trust me guys, we aren't out to screw you out of your hard earned cash. We've been around for 35 years and we stand behind our products and they are all backed by a 1-year warranty.

If you are having a problem, or have a question about one of our products.... call us! We'll be glad to give you answers to your questions, without any sales pitch or hype.

I will foward this post to Jim Mederer for review and get back with his report.

Jim Langer
Racing Beat, Inc.

Jim, I guess you got my email? Glad to see someone getting on here and post a response!

I ordered the RB set many years ago (in the 90's) when the front bar was hollow and had aluminun adjustable ends like the original Tri-Point bar. The front bar worked great, but the rear gave me problems. It was attached per spec but it also bound up and bent. I probably should have notified RB, but just threw it away, sold the front, and bought other bars.

How many others never reported this problem?

I'm running a Racing Beat front swaybar (with Mazdatrix endlinks) and the OEM 94 Base setup in the rear. The car is much more neutral than it was with the stock swaybar in the front.

I picked up a set of OEM 93 swaybars because I'd prefer a hollow bar over a solid one, but I haven't gotten around to installing them yet.

-s-

I was planning on ordering the racing beat bars because I've always heard good things so this is my question, wouldn't it be better for the bars not to be tempered because that way they will bend to a certain extent with the car without actually cracking compared to the mazdaspeed bar? I was planning on re-doing the suspension with coilovers as well so if anyone has an advice for me that'd be great.

I been email with Jim Langer from RB and after several emails, I feel confident about RB's quality and going to give them a try!

Racing Beat FD3S Bars
 

This message is in regards to complaints that have been brought up regards the bars that we offer for the FD3S application. I have spoken at length with Jim Mederer, Racing Beat’s co-founder and chief engineer, and our contact at our sway bar supplier for this application. (We have been using this very large and well-known supplier of sway bars for many years.)

They both indicate that the issue of heat treating and tempering of sway bars is typically unnecessary for “street” bars. This process might be of some benefit for a sway bar that facing extreme bending forces through a wide range of travel (i.e, off road racing), something that is not a concern on a lowered RX-7. If a bar fails, it is more common to see a clean break than a bent bar. “Bending” a bar is fairly uncommon and is usually the result of an over extension of the bar – such as you might encounter in an accident, etc..

I don’t typically come onto the forums and relate information regarding specific issues that we have had with our customers. With regards to the initial post in this thread, we undertook several steps in an attempt to please this customer. However the manner in which the bar was returned to us (it was sent without a box via UPS) made it difficult to determine if there was a problem with the bar.. or the UPS shipping system! This issue, and some other “red flags” that were raised, led us to believe that this might just be a “one-off” issue.

If you have any issues with any of our products, give us a call and let us know. If we have a problem we want to know about it so that we can fix the problem. Hey, we’re just a bunch of car guys that want to provide other car guys with parts for their cars!

Jim Langer
Racing Beat, Inc.

edit: I'll just stay out of this.

has anyone herd any bad or good on the swift sway bars? i was thinking of getting some

Is is kinda odd that I am a red flag. Has me wondering how a person becomes a "red flag".

I took a lot of time and energy to resolve this issue. Did not throw any stones or use terms that would make it a emotional issue.

Not sure what I think of the statement that the sway bars are not tempered. That makes these sway bars a rather large wire instead of a spring. Not sure how one would do weight transfer with a soft wire without pulleys and such.

I can say with authorty that the Mazdaspeed sway bars are tempered. So are the ones on all of the cars and trucks that are sold in north America.

Hollow sway bars are also torsion bars "kinda". The M1 Tanks uses torsion bars as springs. They are tempered as well.

Comments

Im glad I read this thread. Im sold on the MazdaSpeed ones now. Its dissapointing to read about this RB product. Ive purchased several parts from them in the past and have been nothing but impressed. Seems like maybe they took some shortcuts when they engineered this one. Who knows.

FWIW, I’ve been racing with an RB rear bar and Tripoint front bar for 6 years now and have had no issue with either. I have broken 3 pair of the Tripoint reinforced front sway bar mounts so I would say that I have put the sway bars though a pretty good test. I just recently installed a new RB rear bar/ Tripoint front bar (.188) on a customer’s car and after the first race all is good and he is very happy with the way the car is handling.

The RB bar is obviously too long to begin with. The fact that that issue was not addresed with a " we have fixed that". Coupled with the fact that they are not tempered has convinced me to never buy one. And in the future I will think twice about buying any thing from them.

"Red Flag" - He sounds like a politician.

Jim,

this is a piss-poor excuse for customer service. I do not plan on ordering from your company.

I'll take you up on your offer to call....
 

[QUOTE=Racing Beat Inc]This message is in regards to complaints that have been brought up regards the bars that we offer for the FD3S application. I have spoken at length with Jim Mederer, Racing Beat’s co-founder and chief engineer, and our contact at our sway bar supplier for this application. (We have been using this very large and well-known supplier of sway bars for many years.)

They both indicate that the issue of heat treating and tempering of sway bars is typically unnecessary for “street” bars. This process might be of some benefit for a sway bar that facing extreme bending forces through a wide range of travel (i.e, off road racing), something that is not a concern on a lowered RX-7.

I will be contacting Racing Beat a second time, and you personally Jim, to discuss my issue again. My FD is not lowered, so is a non-tempered bar an issue for me and others who have not dropped their cars?

I was told during my call last week, that my front bar was improperly installed at the link end, an insinuation that is completely false. The instructions were followed that came with the bar and everything torqued to specification. It was done in a shop, on a lift, and was a very simple process.

I am looking forward to a resolution of this issue as I will not feel safe running the car at an autocross or track event, until there is a credible explanation as to what happened to my bar.

I ran an RB front bar last year in SCCA SOLO II and was very happy. I just put the rear bar on last night, and drove the car today. I noticed no catastrophic oversteer. I will hold on to my old bar just in case. The RB rear bar is set to the back holes (stiffer). I'll let you guys know how it holds up after the first event in April, granted I get my boost issues fixed.