supension mx5 nc

[PAU61L]

Excellent

[Adrianvh]

I picked up a pair of RX8 front and rear sway bars for $50 from RX8club.com.au. They are huge compared to the factory, especially the rear.
Direct bolt in, all you will need are $25 worth of urethane chassis mount bushes.

[Charlie Brown]

I picked up a pair of RX8 front and rear sway bars for $50 from RX8club.com.au. They are huge compared to the factory, especially the rear.
Direct bolt in, all you will need are $25 worth of urethane chassis mount bushes.

Cheap, yes, but I hope they were out of an automatic RX-8

The auto RX-8 front bar is smaller than the one from the manual and more suited to the NC.

Bar diameter sizes are:
NC standard: Front 21.1mm, Rear 12.0mm
Whiteline: Front 24mm, Rear 16mm
Eibach/Mazdaspeed: Front 25mm, Rear 16mm

RX-8: Front 26.8mm for the manual or 25.4mm for the auto, Rear 15.9mm

Both RX-8 front bars will give you more understeer that the other bars, with the manual RX-8 bar the worst.

As per the comments to Jim MX5 above, if all you want to do is reduce body roll and aren't particularly worried about understeer, then a non adjustable bar might suit you but if you want to retain the handling characteristics of the NC, especially cornering at 8/10ths and up, then adjustable sways are a must.

The Whiteline bars have two positions for the front bar and three for the rear. I’m running the soft position on the front and the hardest position on the rear for the track and the middle position for the road. At the track I tried the full stiff position on the front once and found the understeer to excessive for good times.

The NC, like all MX-5s out of the factory is slightly biased towards understeer. It’s safer that way for Joe Average. What we try to do with aftermarket bars is to get as near to neutral as possible. That makes it easier to control the car with the throttle when you're on the limit.

On the softest setting front and rear the Whiteline bars are 71% / 215% stiffer than standard. I haven’t done the maths on the middle and firm holes for the rear.

The RX-8 auto front / rear bars are 112% / 208% and the manual 158% / 208%, so you can easily see how the NC becomes more biased to understeer as the bar size goes up.

[jim mx5]

Hi guys.

Well my sway bars eventually came, while I was away in the UK for a month.
I have just fitted them today, very easy to do, the big test will be tomorrow driving to work, there are some roundabouts plus good bends.

By the way they are Whiteline Adjustable, I have set them medium rear & soft front.

[jim mx5]

Hi ladies & gents.

well I have had the sway bars on for a couple of wks now, but today the car had a good work out well the suspension did.
Went on a club run to Flinders via Arthur's seat, very pleased with the car handling it stayed very flat & solid, my only complaint would be the harsh ride I now have a lot more rattles. But I realise you can't have one with out the other, you just turn the radio up.
Now looking at the next mod, I.e. change the exhaust system or just put some cosmetic goodies like chrome on, then I could just leave the car alone and enjoy driving it.