Please read the project 350Z article in the April issue of Sport Compact car if your interested in perfecting your G35 or 350Z's balance and handle as well as possible. They pull 1.0g in cornering.

Go figure, they use the Hotchkis sways that we have a group buy on and get rid of the stupid stock staggered tire sizes, like Ive been reccomending to friends and customers all along.
READ IT and learn2turn.

 

i installed my hotchkis on sunday - very pleased.

 

So, the sway bar help improving the body roll and what else? and what is the best setting for it? I see you indicated hard front and medium rear? can someone explain it to me a little, thanks.
btw, Jonathan how you like you 57F-Pro?

 

I am not an expert so I am just reporting what i percieve and i may be on crack.

swaybars - reduce body roll and give you a much more solidly connected feeling to the road in the twisties. I have the rear sways set on medium but going to hard should let me kick the rear end out easier (a soft rear should make the end harder to kick). As long as the tires break free predictably i will probably end up going with the hard setting. I run my flex on 0 front, 0 rear if that helps give you a point of reference. The steering feels more precise.

I love the look of my 57f pro - way more than i thought i would. they are heavy but that is the price you pay for 10.5 in back. I plan to go to FI in the future so i wanted a wide tire in the back to help get power to the ground. I can definitely launch more agressively with the width.

I would highly recommend sways of some kind to everyone. It is an easy install and the handling is dramatically imroved.

I will try to post more impressions after i finish my crank pulley install.

 

thanks, now I get it more. Have you had a chance to weight the wheels?

 

DEFINITLY NOT, hard front
I'd reccomend med front and rear. I run front med and hard rear on mine.

Hard front and med rear will get you even worse understeer than stock.

 

JohnathanG35, How is your ride? Mine seems bouncy in the rear.
Do you have the revised version with the 12kg springs.
Please read and respond to my other post in this forum section titled !!!!!!! TEIN FLEX OWNERS, HELP!!!!!!

 

Actaully hard front and soft rear will be just stiffer than stock. The front is 58% stiffer at its stiffest setting and the rear is 64% stiffer at its softest setting. Going hard front and med rear would give you a bit more oversteer, which may make the car handle perfectly on the stock tires. On the same size all around though, the hard front soft rear may be the ideal way to go!

 

I think i will eventually go hard in the rear because the 10.5 wide tires are tougher to push out.

learn2turn - my flex is noisy and alittle bouncy and i am pretty sure i have the old revision of the setup. I have yet to have the time to play with it.

bottom line is i am not really qualified to set a car up properly. I know what parts to get and i can appreciate the improvement they have made but i have not done any corner weighting or suspension tuning. I really need to pay someone to do it all for me.

 

So please explain what setting (front and rear) will correct understeering?

 

A stiffer rear than the front will decrease understeer. If you went 50% stiffer front and 50% stiffer rear, your car will understeer basically the same. If you go 50% stiffer front and 75% stiffer rear, the car will have less of a tendency to understeer and may oversteer easily at the limits. You have to play around with the setting to see what works best and feels best for you. I just left it full stiff in the front (I think it is 58% stiffer) and full SOFT in the rear (I think it is 64% stiffer), so in essence, I am taking very littel of the understeer away from the car. For street driving, understeer is fine for me (it can help you, though it can sometimes hurt you). For track driving, I am going to have the same size tires all around (as opposed to the staggered stock setup), so that should cure the understeer problem in itself.

 

So, is it better to have a little oversteer rather then understeer for regular hard street driving?

 

personally, I like the idea of a little bit of understeer for street driving. It is almost like a safety net so if you go a little hot into a corner, you will push through it instead of rotating through it and maybe getting your rear end in front if you (extreme case). I also am not the only one driving my car, so just in case my wife gets into a little trouble, it would be a little safer that way.

 

No. Safer and easier to correct understeer than oversteer. That's why most cars, including the Z, always come tuned with some understeer-for safety reasons.