front sway bar?

[austin337]

i have a 90 miata and am planing on autocrossing it next year in es. i was told i could do one sway bar and still stay in stock class. can i us a bar from a newer miata with a bigger bar as a cheap update. does anyone know what the best size is going to be

[fwdtamiya]

Stock is 19mm, R package is 20mm, stock NB is 22mm, but NB will need adjustable endlinks to work. Bigger is probably better, but it's up to the driver.

[wannafbody]

Racing Beat Hollow would probably be the best choice

[drummingpariah]

Racing Beat Hollow would probably be the best choice

I'll second this. I've tried a few bars, and that seems to have the best 'feel'. The rear bar went in my scrap bin. I'm running hillclimbs primarily though, so your mileage may vary at autocross.

[austin337]

thanks for the help. i saw on moss miata that they had a beefier mount for the front sway bar. would i need those as while?

[Dandy]

No,you don't need heavy duty sway bar mounts. If you go with the big Racing Beat bar, they offer a more substantial mount solution for under $40 that may be worth it in conjunction with their bar. You are unlikely to have any issues from a street driven car used for occasional weekend autocrossing. The mounts are usually only a concern on a car with a big bar and really sticky tires and used in more extreme racing conditions.

Honestly the RB bar or any bigger aftermarket bar is probably overkill until you have some behind the wheel autocrossing experience. A good alignment, good tires, and then shocks might be better places to start before changing sway bars. In the process of autocrossing you will have contact with others that have direct experience and you can learn from the mistakes and successes they have had while becoming more familiar with your car. A lot of the guys that race or autocross freguently spend more time driving than they do checking the boards. I say just drive and learn from experience before spending $$$ and then you can establish an informed realistic budget to meet your goals in the future.

[Agent☣Orange]

I ran the FM front and rear and the Racing Beat front bar with cross brace (because I got it free) and both were great for spirited street driving and AutoX. I never got the beefed up mounts because I was never at that level of track racing where I needed them.

[drummingpariah]

I've definitely put my RB bar to work on our frost-heaved mountain roads over the past two years, and you'd be hard-pressed to abuse suspension more than I have (rallycross/rally is harder on it, but that's about it). I haven't had any mount deflection so far, so I'll go out on a limb and say that if you don't need to upgrade your A-arms, you don't need to upgrade your anti-roll bar mounts.

[austin337]

great thanks for the help

[wannafbody]

I'd think the tabs on the A arms would be the first to break.

[freedomgli]

thanks for the help. i saw on moss miata that they had a beefier mount for the front sway bar. would i need those as while?

First of all, read the rulebook. http://www.scca.com/pages/solo-cars-and-rules

ES is not a "stock class" anymore. ES is short for E Street. Read the entire rulebook. Then go back and study Section 13. Street Category. The AWR sway bar mounts will kick you out of ES. You can use the Racing Beat Sway Bar Brace Kit Hardware but not the lateral Sway Bar Brace itself. You don't need any of this to have fun.

Not knowing your auto-x experience, I'm going to assume you've never done it before. In which case, I recommend you take everything in small baby steps. Other than maintenance (i.e. Stage 0) you don't need to spend any money on your car. Seat time and driving skill make the biggest difference.

First figure out if you even like auto-x and to what degree you like it. If you decide that you absolutely love it and you want to be competitive and win plastic trophies, then I suggest you develop your car only once your driving skill has surpassed the car's capabilities. Then continue to make small, incremental changes only if you decide you want to keep optimizing your car for a specific auto-x class. Keep in mind, cars optimized for auto-x tend to make rather compromised street cars. So figure out if you want to drive a street car or build a race car. Only after you've built a few race cars and won a few plastic trophies (or even regional or national championships) will you be smart enough about auto-x and race car development to buy someone else's fully-built race car for pennies on the dollar and hopefully develop that into a winner for much less time, money and effort than building your own from scratch. Once again, you have to decide what aspects of auto-x you enjoy most: driving, winning, building, all of it, etc.

[Rogue]

I have replaced a few cracked sway mounts but they were pretty abused miatas with big sways.

I would go tubular Big Red and RB blocks to start.
You will figure out the rest as you build experience.
Seat time is most important.
also limit your mods, "If you can't drive it stock then you won't get the most from your mods".
That was the advice given to me from a fast old wheel.

[Jimmyheartsbmx1]

I have a 99 miata with stock suspension. I am wanting to purchase sway bars I am between flying miatas kit and the racing beat front tube. and rear solid. I saw on a forum that a guy said "you only need a front Rb tubular bar" I want my car to be a bit stiffer in a corner and I dont mind a good slide "Drift" every once and a while? can you help?

[Rogue]

can you help?
Street car, just get the FM kit.