25mm mazdaspeed front sway bar replica *update 5/12/12!

[kulluminati777]

I hope they reply, maybe one of the Portland/Vancouver guys could drop in and ask in person? We should keep trying to get more people on board for it... 20+, 30+, anything helps you know?

i wish someone could do that because i get no reply, im guessing they wont do it, but the MX-3 needs a bar like this i can tell when i drive my friends other cars they have STI's, RX-7's, and type R civics..... i hop in the MX-3 and the understeer is there..not so much torque steer because my traction bars handle that but i wouldnt have it then im sure i would notice.....

[MrMazda92]

I've been going to Salem VERY frequently lately... That's not too far from CorkSport, I could drop by in person, and try to get the ball rolling. Since I'm offering my own car as the test car, it might do a little to help persuade them towards making the bars. Would you like to PM me the information they've given you on pricing, timeline(for production), etc. for the bars? It may be just the push that they need.

I could make it up, possibly this coming weekend? The 16-17th of June.

[Nd4SpdSe]

i can tell when i drive my friends other cars they have STI's, RX-7's, and type R civics..... i hop in the MX-3 and the understeer is there

Your comparing your Mx-3 to a top line AWD car, a world renowned RWD sports car, and a factory track tuned FWD car?

[kulluminati777]

i can tell when i drive my friends other cars they have STI's, RX-7's, and type R civics..... i hop in the MX-3 and the understeer is there

Your comparing your Mx-3 to a top line AWD car, a world renowned RWD sports car, and a factory track tuned FWD car?

ok when you put it like that it sounds dumb but i plan on attempting a track monster MX-3...and a little bit of suspension tuning and a better power plant i believe the MX-3 is easily able to run with the best and not just in its class

[kulluminati777]

i had the idea to also attempt to contact other fabricators and see if they would be on board with making the bars so stay tuned!!!!

[MrMazda92]

We have 17 people who want bars, and 1 maybe, for the current count! The more people we get on board, the more likely we will see a worthwhile product come onto the market. Once in a lifetime people!

[kulluminati777]

***A little off topic but all this talk of sway bars i wanted to show you guys the worlds thickest rear sway bar ever made!!!Its on a FMTV (army truck) i didnt know these things even need stuff like that but i bet they would tip over with out it

[MrMazda92]

I want.

[Nd4SpdSe]

ok when you put it like that it sounds dumb but i plan on attempting a track monster MX-3...and a little bit of suspension tuning and a better power plant i believe the MX-3 is easily able to run with the best and not just in its class

Well duh! You need to bring your car up to those standards to be able to compare to them. Power wise you can't even compete with the Civic

Of course you can't compare the characteristics of an AWD and RWD to a FWD car, the dynamics of how they work are different, especially since understeer is the achles heel of the FWD layout to begin with. Luc St-Pierre from SRD went pretty crazy with making his Mx-3 a track car, but he didn't post much about it so couldn't say on how well she performed. There's also ProtegeSTS who was a very hardcore autocrosser, you should find some good info in his posts.

I didn't find understeer too bad, but it depended on the springs. When I ran with my B&G's (older ones when they had seperate rates for v6 and 4cyl), I could flick around the rear at will which was really fun, but found she rolled more than I wanted to. I went to H&R's, and she understeered much more and I couldn't flick the rear like I used to. Those springs I figure would make for better road course than autocross because of how tight the turns in autocross are/can be, but I sadly never took the car on a road course.

I also tightened up my rear CS strut bar to pull in the rear mounts, helped tighten up the rear. If you can lift the rear inner wheels, you'll turn better in those tight corners, it's a trick the pros use, they typically run older cars to. I've watched cars do a 270* corner with that wheel never touching the ground, pretty crazy. I've got a video of that somewhere when I was autocrossing in VA.



What I was REALLY looking forward to was the CF hatch + plexi window. Would of lightened up the rear a lot, but also use an actual wing on the rear for downforce and to make it stable at high speeds. Stereoking15 found the rear too light with the hatch, but Mooneggs still runs it, you could ask them since they're pretty avid autocrossers as well.

It's not just about bolting in performance parts, it's about knowing what's going on, and working on a solution to improve on it.

[RobMinhas]

i can tell when i drive my friends other cars they have STI's, RX-7's, and type R civics..... i hop in the MX-3 and the understeer is there

Your comparing your Mx-3 to a top line AWD car, a world renowned RWD sports car, and a factory track tuned FWD car?

My thoughts exactly. Just consider the cost of these vehicles, adjusted for inflation.

[kulluminati777]

but in all honesty, you dont think the engineers at mazdaspeed where putting the A-Spec cars on the track and doing extensive tests on the stuff they added to the car, like the type R machines or do you think they were just trying to make a buck?

[RobMinhas]

but in all honesty, you dont think the engineers at mazdaspeed where putting the A-Spec cars on the track and doing extensive tests on the stuff they added to the car, like the type R machines or do you think they were just trying to make a buck?

I don't think the MX3 was designed to be a track car. It was designed to be a sporty coupe that appealed to a younger audience. It was designed to be decently priced with good fuel economy, whereas the STI and the RX7 are more expensive.

Unlike the STI, which is 40,000+, which leads Subaru cars and is their headline car. Or the RX7, which with at the time of it's release was Mazdas headline car(instead of the MX3) or the Civic Type R, which again is the headline car of Honda(with the exception of the NSX, when it was still made).

[Nd4SpdSe]

Indeed. I remember at an Ottawa meet, one person still had the sales reciept of the FD they got....C$70'000 it said. Makes sence since they were starting at around $36'000USD for a base model in 93 and $42'000USD for a touring in 94. Exchange rate was around $0.73 back then which would make the Touring FD in exchance rate alone cost over $53'000 Canadian, and we haven't even included taxes, which was 15% back then which puts the FD at $61'000 total cost.. THEN cars here have always been more expensive in Canada than the US, even with the dollar at par right now. They were just saying on the radio this week that I think it was a Toyota RAV4, built in Ontario, was $3000 cheaper to buy in Honolulu (which of course has to cross a border, and an OCEAN) than it is to buy in Ontario.

On a more related note. Rememer that MazdaSpeed was it's own thing, and independant racing team and although Mazda was partnered with them, they only bought them in 1999, after the last Mx-3 was sold. Of course there was a fair amount of MazdaSpeed upgrades for the Mx-3, so there was some aftermarket intention, probably seeing the benefit of the car in racing in some series, but apparently it never really caught on and a big racer. Maybe it did overseas and in Japan at her prime, but sadly, there's no trace of that...

Fearing a long-standing technical single-brand dominance, FIA outlawed rotary engines after the 1991 Le Mans race. Unable to race Mazda's trademark rotary engine in the world's most prestigious venue, MAZDASPEED began focusing more on the business side of motorsports and started developing and building aftermarket parts and accessories, while continuing grassroots motorsports initiatives.

With that, unlike the STI, RX7 and Civic Type R, which from the factory, built ground up to be competitive in some sort of racing from their design, especially with in-house tuning, the Mx-3 never had that design intention from the get-go and only took advantage of the platform, pedigree and experience from the 323's (which did rally race) platform and was improved upon for the Mx-3.

Remember too that the NSX and Rx7 were competitors, but Mazda never seem to really push a competitive FWD car. Mazda's 2nd pride and joy to the Rx-7 would of been the Miata, they didn't really focus on a performance FWD car, despite, as we know, they could of easilly made a KLZE 200hp Mx-3 to compete against the 200hp Integra Type-R and H22 Preludes(92-95 Civics had 168hp max, 185hp B16 didn't happen until 97)

[kulluminati777]

most cars coming out are mild. Its when the tuning arm of that manufacturer gets a hold of the chassis is when the best comes out. A civic is in the same boat as an mx-3 as what its supposed to be. by no means are either of them track cars. Pretty much no production car is track ready right off the lot. Even the DC2 and DC5 type R's are great vehicles but they were "designed to be a sporty coupe that appealed to a younger audience" before wearing there type-R badge. The A-Spec touring kit was made to bring out the best in each car it was applied to with track tested parts and engineering. I understand what nd4spd is saying but who has ever auto X or been on a track with a 25mm front sway bar......ill wait......

and i wasn't saying the cars are on the same level i just said the under steer is very noticeable by when u drive other cars with performance upgrades and let people with alot of weekend racing experience drive yours. I think the MX-3 will easily benefit from the front sway bar, just as mazdaspeed had thought it would as well. Besides a turbo, the other upgrades people have do to there MX-3 are the same ones mazdaspeed did all those years ago.

[RobMinhas]

Mazda just didn't support the Mx3 nearly as much as the Civic/Integra was supported. Like Nd4SpdSE said, Mazda was not interested in competing as far as FWD was concerned. It also didn't help that the sales of the MX3 werent' considerably high, like the Teg or the Civic. Less money was to be made there.