I just purchased an ALTA rear sway (22mm) and had it installed, but I was surprised to find that it is red! I thought the ALTA bars were black. Has anyone else received a red ALTA bar, or should I be worried?

 

it may be an earlier version.

 

I think that's how they come now. Check out this write-up on MotoringFile a while back:

http://www.motoringfile.com/2005/04/...pension_how-to

 

Interesting - now I'm not so worried. I thought they had installed the wrong sway bar on my MINI!

 

I think that is cool "RED BAR" because my is black.

 

Kinda cool. Mine is gray.

 

Strom,
New Alta rear sway bars both 19 and 22mm ARE black!

You happen to have gotten one that was painted before the switch.

You're fine, it's not an imposter. Besides "red is faster" anyway!

 

Heh - thanks for the info. That puts my mind at ease.

 

any feedback on handling improvements? I'm looking to get one too:smile:

 

Not true... As KevinR mentioned above, I just received my BRAND NEW ALTA 22mm rear sway bar drop shipped direct from ALTA to my front door and it is indeed red. Maybe ALTA is switching up the colors on us. I prefer the red one anyway as it perfectly matches my JCW Suspension.

 

So far, I'm really loving mine. The car handles like a dream.

I went with the 22 mm rear bar (as opposed to the 19 mm one) for street use as I have a fully loaded MCS (i.e. it's heavy). I first installed it on the stiffest setting (as shown in the picture above), but quickly found that it was causing the car to over steer quite a bit and it was a bit squirrelly in tight high-speed turns. It was fun driving it that way as I liked being able to swing the rear of the car out on demand, but since my wife also drives the car (and I didn't want her to panic in a turn, let off the gas, and have the rear end come around on her), I decided to put it back down on the lower setting. It's perfect for steet use now as the car feels very neutral in the twisties (i.e. no real over steer or under steer).

 

I haven't had a chance to use it in any "high speed" situations yet, but I can tell that the back end is a tighter now. It follows the front much better even at normal speeds. I'm doing a track day at Buttonwillow on Friday - I'll give a full report after that!

 

The 22mm bar on the soft setting was very helpful at the track. I'm on the stock 16" runflats and stock springs, and I had very little understeer unless I was just coming into corners way too fast. Keep in mind also that I have an '05 w/LSD. Also, the car would rotate when lifting off the brakes quickly, but it was very controllable.

As far as high-speed sweepers, I felt no oversteer. Just a little bit of four-wheel drift at certian points. I'm really still trying to learn the car's handling characteristics at this point - especially the runflats. They make a lot of noise and I don't quite trust them. My next modification will probably be different tires.

One last point, I noticed that if I left the rear tires at the same pressure as the fronts (as is recommended by MINI), the car was very unsettled in the corners and when braking. I brought the pressures to 37 front 34 rear when hot, and the car was much more stable. The factory recommendation of 35 front 35 rear cold made the car pretty unstable at higher speeds.

Overall, a great modification!

 

Sounds like you guys are happy with your 22mm bars.

Ordered my red Alta 22mm rear sway bar a few days ago from Brian @ ESE. Looking forward to installing it (along maybe with the JCW susp this summer) and improving the handling .

 

Red is the new color and had been for a few months. We thought we would spice it up a little. Most people don't seem to mind because it isn't very visable. I am glad people are happy with them. That 22mm on the street is perfect!

 

Mine is working very well - I was just expecting black from reading other threads! :smile:

 

I love the red. It will look amazing with the JCW suspension and black wheels.