I like my NMs.

 

It's tricky to say that a 22mm rear plays better if you upgrade the rest of the suspension....it totally depends on what you do and what spring rates you use.

Yes if you get a bigger front bar, the 22mm is probably better than the 19mm, but with coilovers and custom rates and some camber, you can make the car do whatever you want with the right tuning/spring rates.

For a track car, I say more camber up front is at least as important as the rear bar. At least the IE fixed plates for close to -2 or the free camber mod.

- Andrew

 

We spec a 19mm rear bar for ANY suspension setup. More isn't better...

 

I can't say I agree with 22mm being the sweet spot. The idea is that MINI loves to make their cars understeer. They do this in a few ways. They make the front camber next to nothing and the rear camber 1.5 deg, they make the rear swaybar too small, and they make the front and rear track width equal. I think that a mild (19 or 20mm) rear bar is more than enough, simply because, as was mentioned by andyroo, that you should be using camber plates, rear control arms, and coilovers to set your car. Swaybars should be used for fine tuning, not as a bandaid solution. I also believe in the use of adjustable length endlinks, because fixed length endlinks aren't making the most of the swaybars.

 

^and I can't say i agree with you that a swaybar should be a "fine tuning" item.

Jumping up in stiffness of a rear swaybar is NOT fine tuning. Fine tuning is taking one fewer turns of your adjustable pieces, or adding 1/2 degree of camber. The swaybar makes a large difference and you can tune around it. If you like a 19, then you can tune around a 19. If you like a 22, you can tune around a 22. To say that you "tune" with a swaybar is asinine. It's like saying to tune your ecu before you buy a bigger turbo. Just doesn't work.

 

For hardcore track and auto-x set-ups, the swaybar is fine tuning. A lot of successful autocrossers and racers go through several sets of swaybars to get the balance of the car right, or use different bars for different conditions. Textbook method really is to choose spring rates to control pitch and determine the natural frequency of the car, then fine tune balance and weight transfer with swaybars.

Of course for street cars, a bigger rear sway is a great bang for the buck item and make such a noticeable difference that it's hard to call it fine tuning. Band-aid solution or not, it does feel better than stock.

So maybe it's just the choice of words here.


- Andrew