Hi guys,

So I was able to place an order of NISMO S-Tune swaybars, until a fellow Z owner suggested me to look into Hotchiks, as it's "way stiffer".

Hotchiks's website lists stiffness settings as follow:

350Z & 03- 05 G35 Front
Hole 1 = 1525 lbs/in (22% Stiffer than stock)
Hole 2 = 1845 lbs/in (48% Stiffer than stock)
Hole 3 = 2270 lbs/in (82% Stiffer than stock)
Hole 4 = 2855 lbs/in (129% Stiffer than stock)

Rear:
Hole 1 = 520 lbs/in (80% Stiffer than stock)
Hole 2 = 655 lbs/in (125% Stiffer than stock)
Hole 3 = 840 lbs/in (185% Stiffer than stock)


NISMO of course is not adjustable. I am wondering if anyone could post stiffness settings for NISMO?

 

um no... go with hotchkiss


why would you buy something you can't adjust sillllllllllllly

 

Car is strictly being used a daily driver, though I do corner semi-aggressively.

My concern-----if this is legit-----is that I am also getting NISMO S-tune springs + shocks. I wonder how well hotchiks bars would fare with the rest of NISMO suspension components.

 

just fine, frankly they're incredible in terms of improvement of stock and i am at the "softest" setting - and a street driver like yourself.

 

I just read the instruction.

They suggest setting the front bar to stiffiest, and rear to lightest.

 

Trust me when I tell you that you don't want the fronts on full stiff. Especially for a street car. When I autocrossed regularly, I ran with medium-stiff (3rd hole). On the street, I'm now running medium-soft (2nd hole).

There's a Sway Bar Database sticky thread in the Autox/Road forum. It has all the ratings listed there.

 

Right.

I am going to use MED for front and back then.

So we all good with hotchiks bars + NISMO spring + shocks combo eh?

(yes, I am from Canada, we use "eh" here, LOL)

 

yes you should be good. I'd stick with the soft rear setting as recommended by hotchkis.

Ultimately, you have to do some experimenting to see how the combination of spring, shock and sway work together. The settings that I used or anybody else for that matter were based on hotchkis sways/Koni shocks/OEM springs. I took into consideration the type of autocross courses we ran (tight), the roads I daily drive on (bad) and occasional trips to the road course.

Nismo springs and shocks have different rates and you have to adjust your sways accordingly. Check out the threads in the Autox/Road forum regarding typical setups.

There are no "one size fits all" - there's a lot of personal preference, driving style and different hardware to take into account.

 

Thanks again for all the help. I am ready to order up the parts and will post review when done.

 

I have Nismo S-tune bar specs.

I also ahve actual measurements in lbs for 03-04 sway bars, courtesy of 350EVO.

IMO, very few bar makers publish HONEST bar specs vs oem, some of them are made out or rareatanium I think

F: 36mm, hollow, 23.2 kg/mm
R: 22.2mm, hollow, 6.7 kg/mm

Front 1299lbs
Rear 375lbs

Oem 03/04
Front 1100lbs
Rear 380lbs


Nismo S-tune bars vs oem 04/04 bar specs
Front +18%
Rear -1%

For 2005 the front sway bars were stiffened as part of the 2004.5 suspension revision. Carter Thompson in a search to get faster in "B" stock SCCA Auto-x discovered this, he measured them and found out they are 17% stiffer so,......

2005+ oem bar specs based on ^

Front 1287
Rear 375

Meaning, S-tune sway bars are beyond pointless on a 04.5+ car.

 

I've been convinced to go with hotchiks bars.