I have a 1996 DC2 Integra GSR that I daily drive and will occasionally autocross and bring to the track. I was wondering how the 22mm vs 24mm swaybars would compare on my car when driving? Would 24mm be overkill while the 22mm would be enough? Or does the 24mm provide significant handling compared to the 22mm? Just want to get some information for the future :] Thanks for answers!

 

a lot of factors go into this... spring rates and front bar size?

 

We need more information about your setup and goals. I have the ASR 24mm and its an awesome bar. I was surprised to see how much better the car feels with it over the 22. I do have relatively soft springs compared to most in RR/AX forum, (400/500) so a sway bar change will be more noticeable for me.

You should have a strong grasp of automotive dynamics if your going to setup the car to rotate easily.

 

I would personally go for the 24. the adjustability is a no brainer for me, as well as more rear roll stiffness.

In the case of too much rotation for you, you could always compensate with alignment specs...

I loved my 24mm progress

 

Ahhh, I was hoping there was an answer for my question in general. Darn it. Well anyway, let's see...

Spring rates would be...LOL. No idea -_- I'm going to get ground controls to go with my koni yellows, eventually. I'm not sure what my spring rates will be, though. I'll find that out later when I drive around at autox, unless someone can give me good default spring rates to start with? Haha.

As for front bar, I'm going to leave as stock, seeing how people say that the front gsr bar is good enough and only the rear bar needs upgrading (I think )

Set up and goals? I'm not really sure what the set up will be, yet. GC/Koni (dont know spring rates), 24/22mm sway bar, 15in wheels (heard rota slips are cheap and light <3) with azenis. Maybe better pads or bushings? Not really sure what else is good for autox. At least for STS, anyway :] ( I plan on staying in this class for awhile to gain experience and knowledge :] ) Goals? To be the best at autocross! hahahahahahhaha just kidding. But a realistic goal im going for is to just get better at driving my car in autox..maybe some track events later on. Pretty much just to get better in general and get more competitive in the sport, which im sure ill get addicted to :]

Well, if there is anything else you guys need to know, just ask me! I think I wrote a lot...hopefully you guys like reading a lot :] Thanks for the answers in advance!


Modified by lumnite at 12:00 AM 1/21/2008

 

im not trying to knock you but you should learn the car first and go from there, i think(and some might disagree) spring rates should be a bit more important that sway bar size at this stage! a lot of people say 24mm. i personally have a 22mm on my hatch but i have rather stiff spring rates and to me its a perfect balance..

 

Yeah, I think without knowing your spring rates, putting a random bar on is a bad idea. Either hold off for now, or play it safe with an ITR bar. A big bar + soft springs is also asking for trouble. Even more than either of those, throwing parts at the car without knowing AT ALL what they're going to do is a VERY bad idea. You want to be able to know how the car will behave as you start learning, not worrying about wtf it's going to do. If you knew what you were doing behind the wheel and/or trying to build a competitive autox car, that would be one thing. But, that's not the case.

Is there a way you can find out the spring rates? Or for that matter, are they even aftermarket springs or stock springs? As for goals, how about how will the car be driven? As in, daily driver, part time track/autox and daily, or dedicated track/autox?

Also, like spock, I'm running a stock ITR rear bar with GSR front bar. I do have stiff springs (1000lbs in the rear), but even with much softer rates I felt that bar was fine.

 

Ive run my 96 DC2 GSR for the last 5 Yrs in DSP with the 22mm oem type r rear bar, comptech subframe brace setup. I love it, I also run koni agx, h&r sports, all poly bushings, stock front bar and I topped it all off with a big fat QUAIFFE! . It is a very predictable and neutral setup. Just enough rear slide (225,45,13" hoosiers). It only pushes in corners when I expletive up. Slap on your daily wheels and turn down the shocks and you have a pretty comfortable daily driver. I actually only put the rears at 3 (of 4). I keep the fronts all the way down. Front camber is about -2.5, rear camber is -1.5. I dont remember the toe. I just yanked the motor tonight for the rebuild and JRSC. Boost's gonna be fun this summer!

 

My car came with eibach sportlines, but im going to replace them with ground controls soon. Is there a recommended spring rate that I should start out with or something? Oh, and my car will be mostly a daily driver, and part time track/autox, which will become a hobby of mine.

I'm just wondering who would use 22mm bars and who would use 24mm bars. Like, what setup and cars would use different bars like that? So are 22mm bars and 24mm bars the same and it just depends on your suspension set up? Or are 24mm potentially better, it's just harder to control and youll need to tweak your spring rates and stuff a bit? I don't really understand this stuff, so any help would be greatly appreciated :]

 

before u get into all these mods u should really learn to drive.... cause youll feel real helpless when u mod the crap out of your car only to realize ur getting beat by cars that are bone stock with real good drivers behind the wheel

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by lumnite &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I don't really understand this stuff, so any help would be greatly appreciated :]</TD></TR></TABLE>

Here's what you should do: Keep the car as-is, learn to drive it for awhile (that means bare minimum of several autoxes). Since it's winter, it'll be awhile before you can actually start that. In like 6 months when you actually have experience, come back and ask us again. Until then, your car will be fine just the way it is. It won't be ideal, but you can't drive it to the limit anyway so it doesn't matter.

To answer your actual question about swaybars, they're one part of an equation. No one can just say, "Use this one." It is dependent on your shocks, springs, and driving style. Until you have a better idea of how the first two behave and until you actually HAVE the last one, don't bother trying to figure it out.

 

Yeah...I really should get more experience on this stuff by driving. It's just that I won't be able to participate in any events until summer. It just sucks that I can't do anything except read stuff and learn. But I do have a lot to learn, and learning is actually pretty cool.

Just wondering, is there anyplace or...I don't know. A good place to just sit back and read about autox, racing with gsrs, people's experiences...or anything like that? All I'm going to be doing for a few months is just reading anyways, so is there another forum or a list of websites I could goto to increase my knowledge &lt;3 Oh, and thanks for giving me advice without flaming me. Sorry about...myself

 

I'm not familiar enough with CA to know, is Fremont near LA? If so, there should be events sooner than the summertime. No matter what, you do have some options. First, you can get some great driving education at an indoor karting place. The places that are worthwhile require you to wear a helmet and suit, both of which they can provide. Driving a kart is different than a car, but you can still learn a lot about track-type driving, such as line theory, braking, over- and understeer, etc.

If even those terms sound like more than you know, go hit up a book store. My personal favorites:
-Secrets of Solo Racing
-Speed Secrets (by Ross Bentley; you'd want to start with Volume 1, then Volume 2. Don't worry about Volumes 3 and 4 for now)
-"Going Faster!" is ok, and a classic, but for that one just read through the beginning part in the store.

Other than that, just know that 1.) driving a GSR on track is no different from driving any other FWD Honda on track, and 2.) driving a FWD car isn't really THAT different from driving a RWD car. Given those two things, anything you read about a Honda on track, or really any car on track, will apply with respect to driving technique. Car setup is different for FWD (again though, all FWD Hondas will be set up very similarly) than RWD, but it's something that doesn't really matter much at this point in the game.

 

haha fremont is like 5 hours from LA

 

5 hours in which direction? When I mapquested it, there were three Fremonts in CA.

 

It's all the way north of LA above San Jose and below San Fransisco. I know there are some events in San Fransisco, but I won't be able to make those UNTIL summer. Work + School = Gay. I might be able to visit some events though. I want to see what its like at autox and see if I can learn anything from watching and talking to the people there.

Ooo0o0o thanks for the books! I might pick those up sometime soon. But...well, just wondering, are there any websites that have good information about the stuff in the books? I'm more willing to read long stuff online rather than books, for some reason But if there isn't, I'll gladly read the books. Online is just more convenient :]

Oh, and there's actually some LeMans kart thing near where I live. I visited that place before, but wow it's so expensive to ride there!

 

For online stuff, see the FAQ at the top of the RR/Autox forum first page. There should be a ton of stuff in there.

Karting can be expensive. The cheapest I've seen it is something like $25 for a membership, and $10 for each race. Even if you do it 2-3 times, it'll give you a taste for the adrenaline rush.

 

Just to play it safe, go with the itr sway bar.

Anyone know a good place where you can get a asr brace and itr sway bar combo kit?

 

I have a 24 mm ASR Sway Bar for sale. Brand New $170 shipped

I can get all ASR parts

 

with D-brackets and bushings?

 

Yes with D brackets and bushings

 

Save the money on the sway bar and go karting a few times. Also, till the season starts you can do some reading (the SCCA site usually has a book or 2 recommended on the topic of AutoX or just check Amazon), and even playing video games. I can actually build my exact car set-up and drive it on AutoX tracks or road courses in Forza on the Xbox. Having driven RD ATL and XBoxed it, I was astonished how accurate the game was (for the course and my car).

Till you've done a few events save the money on Mods. Buy some stock - the market is low and there are tons of deals.