I installed my new Hotchkis sway bars a couple of weeks ago with the remaining suspension left in stock condition. I have the settings in medium(f)/medium(r), and have noticed that my turn-in is noticeably less sharp. I checked air pressure and bolt torque, and it all looks fine. I even compared the the steering input with another Z with completely stock suspension, and confirm that my car does indeed feel more sluggish in slalom maneuvers. Body rolls seems to be about the same as the stock sways.

A week after installing the Hotchkis sways, I did a track day, and my front tires are all torn up, but my rears are completely intact. Is that normal? Also, I could only break the rear tires in the esses (turn 12 at Thunderhill) as weight is shifted quickly after turn 11.

I know some of you are running the same bars and settings, but I have only read positive reviews about this setup.


Hotchkis Sport Sway Bar Specs:
Front 1 3/8" (35MM) Hollow (Bar Weight 13.5lbs)
3 Position Adjustable
Rate Increase over stock
+9%,+32%,+63%

Rear 15/16"(24mm) Hollow (bar weight 5.5lbs)
3 Position Adjustable
Rate Increase over stock
+54%,+92%,+146%

 

I felt the same way after installing my hotchkis sways ( started out at med/soft). and it felt the same as stock to me too. I was thinking to myself, why did I buy these again? I also did a back to back comparison with a stock z and was dissapointed.

but,, after changing to stiff/meduim and it felt much better! Another comparison with a friends stock setup showed that the car definatly had less roll.


I also wonder about some people's reviews and always take them with a grain of salt. (Checking to see if they are coming from someone who sells them is a good idea too).

Keep in mind that the z comes with very stiff sways to begin with so these mods aren't going to be as drastic as they are on other cars. Try the stiff/medium combo, I think you will notice the difference.

Controlling roll with springs is the ideal way to go. I think these sways will really shine if you go coilovers and fine tune with the different settings.

Anyone else have any comments? I'm curious to hear what other people have to say about other brands that I was too cheap to buy.

 

I just put on my Hotchkis sway bars along with the Nismo S-Tune suspension. The front is on stiff and the rear is on medium.

The combination of the suspension and the sways makes a noticeable improvement. It feels like the settings are right for the sway bars and there is no more understeer. I am very happy with this set-up so far.

I like the Nismo suspension because I dont have to worry about the camber or fine tuning. I know its not adjustable like coil overs but its great for my needs. I just wanted more performance without any hassle.

 

I was also a little disappointed with the Hotchkis front sway stiffness. However, reading the % increase shows that med is quite marginal improvement. I have run stiff up front and I find there's excessive bump feedback through the steering wheel. Also, the bar began to clunk excessively when full stiff (even though it was thoroughly greased) - completely quiet when returned back to med though...

Honestly, I need to find one more preparation point for Solo2 (to get a Nismo diff). I'm thinking of ditching the front Hotchkis bar and going back to stock. The rear bar however is very effective.

 

I installed front first and than rear a week later. Front sway bar in full stiff made HUGE difference for turn-in. With stock rear and otherwise stock suspesion. I don't have an understeer anymore.

As for the rear, I installed it in medium and I didn't noticed positive difference. During autox my tail was extremely happy... Per recomendation of other people here I'll try full soft rear setting for my next autox (this weekend).

 

I wonder if these numbers are accurate, Medium up front didn't feel any different than stock to me.



Hotchkis Sport Sway Bar Specs:
Front 1 3/8" (35MM) Hollow (Bar Weight 13.5lbs)
3 Position Adjustable
Rate Increase over stock
+9%,+32%,+63%

Rear 15/16"(24mm) Hollow (bar weight 5.5lbs)
3 Position Adjustable
Rate Increase over stock
+54%,+92%,+146%

 

Geez, Vlad, now I'm completely confused. From what I understand, going stiffer in the front (relative to the rear) should have induced more understeer, but turn-in would be sharper.

As for the stiff(f)/medium(r) setting, it looks like it could still be a workable setting, since the stiffness bias is still towards the rear, and should reduce understeer when compared to stock sway settings: +63%(f)/+92%(r).

Thanks for all your opinions...I didn't think I was alone.

 

Personally, I think Hotchkis has been fudging their numbers from day one. Pretty much everybody at the track that runs sway bars on their Z's use 350Evo bars, and there has been zero complaints about performance.

 

I installed both front and rear Hotchkis sway bars last week and am very impressed with the results.

My front is set to medium, and my rear is at full stiffness. - Stock suspension besides

The body lean is almost gone; turn in is sharper for me; even though I have not had a chance to test out my setup on a challenging road course, I do think that my Z now oversteers.

The only bad thing that I have noticed so far is like a crunching noise coming from the front (especially) and rear when slowly driving over speed bumps. - Should be taking it to the shop to have figured out as soon as I get a chance.

Overall, I am very happy with my purchase, and no... I don't have any kind of financially gaining relationship with Hotchkis or the distributor that sold me the sways.

 

The 350Evo bars arent available right now. They are on back order and I didnt want to wait for them.

 

350 evo would be my choise since that's what both Grand-Am teams use for racing. But being weight reduction obsessed I went with hollow Hotchkis, which I read a lot of good reviews about, from people who race.

I do race and I really see positive difference. I set my rear to full soft yeasterday night, and it seemed to help with happy tail this morning although I didn't have chanse to really test it yet.

I'm not sure why some people's experience is different with the same sway bars... I'm not as expirienced in theory as I wish I was. Can it be some defects in particular bar? Different tires? Non OEM other suspention parts?

 

I think that once you thow in different tires, wheel alignment, rim offsets, springs, shocks, and sway bars, the equation gets exponentially complicated. It's way too overwhelming for an average joe like me to deal with. So, that's why I've kept my stock suspension.

Yesterday, I put back my 19" rims with aggressive offsets, and the whole set up felt quite a bit better than with my stock suspension and current sway bar settings. Turn-in inproved even though it shouldn't have with wider t1s' ....voodoo....

 

I have 20 mm wider tires and different offcet: +35 instead of stock +32 I guess. And 9-9.5 lbs lighter wheels each.

 

I'm actually quite happy with the bars now that I've found my settings. I went with these over the 350evos because both of the published numbers are very close and they're lighter. 350evo makes awsome race tested products and I am still curious to find someone who has these installed so I can do a comparison. If you look at the numbers on their front bar, it's only marginally stiffer than the stock bar (like the hotchkis). That's all that's needed.
I run stock tires on the street and dedicated track tires for track days. The stiff/med setup is neutral with the track tires and slightly understeers with the stock tires (which is fine with me since I don't push it on the street). I'm sure once I upgrade to coilovers, I will lessen the settings.

 

so we've found that the swaybars start to become fully noticable when mated with coilovers. I bought my JICs first, i'm thinking that was the way to go as far as steps.