Hello.

Is it worth it to get both sway bars?
I hate when the car oversteers, and Ill like to fix that, Ive read that only with the rear one I do it, but what hapens if I get both, is it necesary?
Ive found the rear competition 25.5mm sway bar for $219, and the rear competition 25.5mm sway bar and front 27mm sway bar for $319, all of them are hotchkis, is it a good deal?


Cheers.

 

Good deal. Great buy. I have both the front and rear Hotchkis competition sway bars on my mini and they work out great. Did the rear first and then the front a year later and noticed a huge improvement. On the AutoX track the car really put the power down to the wheels rather than spinning the tires on the exit after I added the front bar.

Majority of people here will tell you to skip the front, though...

 

Yeah. What he said...

Skip the front.

 

If you are worried about too much oversteer with the competition bar, why not try the sport bar? Both bars are adjustable so you can fine tune them to where you feel the most comfortable with the car.

The main reason people will tell you to skip the front bar is because its a real pain to install.

 

Agreed. Definitly a pain to install, but definitly worth the rewards after it's on.

 

Stock, the car is set up to UNDERsteer, not oversteer. Putting a rear sway bar on will bring the car closer to neutral. Putting a front sway on and no rear will cause the car to understeer more. Putting both bars on will change almost nothing about cars tendencies to under/oversteer, but will tighten up the car nicely in turns (less body roll, etc).

Unless you're planning on running a 25.5 in the back and a "Sport" (Only 2-3mm larger) upgraded front, i'd stay away from the front. As others have said it's a pain in the *** to install, and for $320 + 100-150 to install, there are other things I'd spend my money on before a front sway bar.

 

He wants to get hotchkis competition bars, which are adjustable front and rear (2 settings for the front, 3 for the rear). Below are the adjustments for the competition bars in stiffness (read: stiffer) compared to stock:

Front:

16% outer
27% inner

Rear:

226% outer
294% middle
383% inner

Even if you set them both to the outer, you eliminate the inherint understeer of the car, so it does alot more than "just the same, just stiffer". You have alot more options with the front and rear bars, than just the rear, and can set up the car to your driving style. Sway bars are meant to work together, not with different sway bar by a differnet company or a car manufacturer, that's why companies make a front and rear to go together.

 

I've got both front and rear H-sport bars on my car now, with the primary focus being autocross. Front on soft, rear on the stiffest setting. I've been happy with the results, but the rest of my suspension isn't stock so I can't really comment on what the impact would be on an otherwise stock car, but I suspect that it would be a good street setup if you aren't looking for a lot of oversteer.

Scott
90SM

 

Yes, that's exacly what Im looking for, I haven't take my car to a recetrack yet, I only use it on street, but sometimes I drive a little bit agressive, and I just want to get rid of overteering.

So both of you recomend me to get the two sway bars?

 

I recommend both reguardless if they are used on the track or on the street. You won't be disappointed.

 

I think you mean you want to get rid of understeer which is what the MINI naturally does. No ones MINI has too much oversteers stock. Adding the rear bar will increase oversteer which brings the MINI closer to neutral which is what you want. If you go too aggressive at first with the rear bar (22mm set to stiff) you could get a MINI that will come around on you quicker than you can save it. Not fun at all on the street. No matter what you do, go easy at first and get a feel for it before you go bump up the stiffness. AutoX is the best way to feel this where you don't risk anything, especially lives.

 

Please describe what behavior you're calling "oversteer" and we may be able to provide better advice.

Oversteer means that, when turning hard to the right, the back end of the car goes around to the left TOO FAR - causing the car to rotate farther to the right than you pointed your steering wheel - some would call this a "spin" if it goes too far...

Understeer means that, even though the steering wheel is pointed far to the right, the car tends to plow on straight ahead - it doesn't rotate FAR ENOUGH to the right to follow the line you had intended. This is the natural tendency of most cars in stock form, including MINIs.

When the car is neutral handling, its tendency is to go where you point it, up to the limits of physics and your tires... on the MINI, with a fairly neutral setup, lifting off the gas in a corner results in weight transfer to the front, which CAN cause the rear end to come around (oversteer).

 

I'd agree that more adjustability gives you different options, but too many people throw on a huge front bar and a huge rear bar, set them both as stiff as they go, and call it a day. I considered REMOVING my front sway bar (I know a few other people that have) a few times.

With these new coilovers I may actually have to get a front sway bar, as I can't dial out enough from the rear bar to compensate for the oversteer. The back end comes around in an instant (And it's set to full soft).

 

Here is a very simple way to distinguish between Under and Oversteer.

Understeer - You drive straight into the wall while turning the wheel.

Oversteer - Your back end hits the wall first when you turn the wheel

and for yucks....

Horsepower - How fast you hit the wall

Torque - How far you push the wall after hitting it.

This site has an excellent chart on ways to fix both under and oversteer issues.

I'm in the camp that says all you need is a good adjustable 19mm bar on the rear. I've had the subframe off a few times in the front so adding a front bar would not have been an issue. I find that for my driving style on the track I can fine tune with air pressure and shock settings.

 

Sorry I meant understeer.