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Hotchkis swaybars

Truth in Ruin

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Woah! I’m late to the party. Too busy with work now. Hopefully they’ll still have them for $85 when I have time to order later tonight.

EDIT: I just checked eBay and they only had it for $179

2nd EDIT: Boo
 


SST

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anybody weighted this hollow swaybars? i am considering solid just because of rust problem here in Canada, but depends on weight savings too
 


RubenZZZ

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anybody weighted this hollow swaybars? i am considering solid just because of rust problem here in Canada, but depends on weight savings too
I believe 10 lbs.... Or 4.6 kgs for our metric amigos.

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Plainrt

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anybody weighted this hollow swaybars? i am considering solid just because of rust problem here in Canada, but depends on weight savings too


Why not just take off before winter and put on early spring when roads good? Not like it’s a hard install or really need it for winter driving lol.
 


Dpro

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Was the discount due to imperfections in the coating? I have quite a few lil chips but it does not affect the part and will get chips anyway I imagine. Still a great deal.

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Discount was because sales were slow and they were on the fence about whether to make more or just end the line.
Of course no one in our community was paying attention to Hotchkis as far as our cars were concerned because no advertising or discussion was drawing attention to them.
If the price went back to the original price then it sounds like they are going to do a new run.
 


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jeff

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There are many opinions on this upgrade. Many say that the car is perfect and adding rear stiffness will cause the car to slide in quick turning. Others say that adding the bar improves turning/grip feel and allows more confidence. For modding a daily driver, my experience has been that adding stiffness in the lower rear of the car (e.g. torsion bar done years ago) did improve traction feel/experience. For that reason I felt that $86 was not much to pay for more improvement of the same.

My bar arrived today, quality is top-notch, finish is outstanding, packaging is overkill, you get stickers and install instructions and more, VERY impressed and I rarely use caps for emphasis.

I plan to install sometime in the next few weeks depending on rain, when I do I'll post some pics and thoughts.

For now, a track review from the other Hotchki thread for all you who are following...

I finally installed the Hotchkis rear bar and hit the track once again.

My previous open track event at Thunderhill West in my stock-suspended '15 demonstrated lots of body roll and understeer. While I ordered the rear bar and the front end links at the same time, I am as yet still waiting for the end links to come off of backorder. With just the addition of the Hotchkis rear bar, the car corners much flatter than stock and now has less understeer tendencies.

The advantage I see that the Hotchkis bar holds over the competition is that the bar ties into the rear shock mounts, as well as the factory holes in the twist beam. I am looking forward to receiving the stiffer front end links to complete the Hotchkis setup.

The install was quick, and I like how the bar does not hang down and diminish ground clearance.
Pics from my garage...










 


Plainrt

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I was just gonna say some of the things Jeff touched on. I also got mine today and was very impressed with everything.
The packaging was amazing. The welds and finish of the bar are top notch. No nicks or anything. I think this item is well worth the full retail price.
 


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I was just gonna say some of the things Jeff touched on. I also got mine today and was very impressed with everything.
The packaging was amazing. The welds and finish of the bar are top notch. No nicks or anything. I think this item is well worth the full retail price.
much agreed. mine came in today and i installed it. First suspension mod so far for my car, it def feels a lot more tied in in the rear. 270 degree incline off ramp i drive on frequently i can now go 5mph faster than before. not much but it does feel safer! next suspension mod will prob be the 6 point pierce harness.
 


koozy

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There are many opinions on this upgrade. Many say that the car is perfect and adding rear stiffness will cause the car to slide in quick turning. Others say that adding the bar improves turning/grip feel and allows more confidence. For modding a daily driver, my experience has been that adding stiffness in the lower rear of the car (e.g. torsion bar done years ago) did improve traction feel/experience. For that reason I felt that $86 was not much to pay for more improvement of the same.

My bar arrived today, quality is top-notch, finish is outstanding, packaging is overkill, you get stickers and install instructions and more, VERY impressed and I rarely use caps for emphasis.

I plan to install sometime in the next few weeks depending on rain, when I do I'll post some pics and thoughts.

For now, a track review from the other Hotchki thread for all you who are following...



Pics from my garage...
FYI, looks like your bar is missing end cap plugs. Maybe they can send you a pair, otherwise Home Depot should have something.

I posted several images earlier to see what it looks like.



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Is this something you would use in combination with a pierce torsion bar? or would you only use the swaybar and remove the torsion bar?
 


Truth in Ruin

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I’m really bummed that they’re out of the 85 dollar range. I was really interested in purchasing this bar and it’s going to be too hard paying full price knowing how cheap they went for. Back to the drawing board.
 


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Both the pierce and Hotchkis will increase torsion beam stiffness and will function together. (If you really want to add that much rear roll stiffness.)
 


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For those who have it installed, how has the ride quality been effected (if anything is actually noticeable)? I would imagine dropping one tire off in a dip or pothole will be significantly more stiff with the additional 200 lbs. of resistance.
 


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For those who have it installed, how has the ride quality been effected (if anything is actually noticeable)? I would imagine dropping one tire off in a dip or pothole will be significantly more stiff with the additional 200 lbs. of resistance.
Ride quality should not change. The anti-roll bar increases roll resistance, but not compression (bump) stiffness.


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The anti-roll (away) bar controls the body, the springs control the wheels. (This is a simplification, but it gets at the differing roles of the two suspension components)

This is true for most cars, it’s a bit more complicated with our torsion bar rear suspension. If my answer is not accurate for the FiST, hopefully someone will set it right.


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Dpro

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The anti-roll (away) bar controls the body, the springs control the wheels. (This is a simplification, but it gets at the differing roles of the two suspension components)

This is true for most cars, it’s a bit more complicated with our torsion bar rear suspension. If my answer is not accurate for the FiST, hopefully someone will set it right.


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Well actually that all depends on what type of spring one uses. In our cars a progressive spring is used and because progressive springs change load rate so they actually do control some of the body roll. In fact for GT cars , off road and road racing contrary to what some people think and feel around here progressive is great way to go. A quote from the Hyperco website one of the best spring makers out there.

“For grand touring and high-performance driving, progressive rate springs offer great ride quality and superior handling due to the roll control offered by the springs. This is especially true if a reduced ride height is desired. The initial light rate provides a great ride, while the increased secondary rate assures a load carrying capability unavailable if lowering with a linear rate spring is attempted. Most high-performance driving involves a fixed vehicle package with only one or two passengers and very limited extra weight. This is the ideal situation for progressive rate springs.”

So in effect if one is concerned about stiff ride feel on the street one should look towards a progressive spring and why most aftermarket lowering springs are progressive rather than linear.



Now one of the problems with going progressive vs linear is that you need travel room for them to function properly. Hence why you see a lot of coilover manufacturers specing their setups with linear. As most people setup coilovers with limited travel room.
This can and can’t be advantagous. It depends on what you are trying to do with your car a its application.

You are correct that swaybars do nothing more than control body roll yet they are also technically a spring. The Hotchkis by the way its designed to be mounted to our cars will indeed increase torsional rear stiffness besides controlling body roll.
 


TDavis

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Experienced some rear wiggle during some high speed braking. Might get this to remedy that situation
 


D1JL

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Experienced some rear wiggle during some high speed braking. Might get this to remedy that situation
I am not trying to start any controversy here but I had a similar issue.
I use the Ebach (available sooner & free) rear sway bar, not that the bar should make any difference.

I found that the issue you are describing in my case was cause by the rear brakes.
By increasing the gripping force of the rear brakes made this problem go away.

Again, this just the way I solved it.
 


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