Narita Dog Fight recently posted a tech article on the Tanabe Stabilizer Bar that they installed on their Time Attack Civic.
“It’s all in the name; “Anti-Roll Bar”. Although, more often refereed to as a sway bar, the purpose of these bars is to reduce the amount of body roll in your vehicle during fast corning, or often times irregularities in the driving surface.”
“A deciding factor in going with the Tanabe rear sway bar was that they are made from a material called ‘chromemoly’. The uniqueness of chromemoly’s strength is such that even with a smaller diameter anti-swaybar, the resistance is much greater than a standard steel anti-swaybar that is larger in diameter. On top of that, Tanabe’s stabilizers are hollow; all of which add up to a lighter, stronger product. If you know me personally, you’ll know that I have a saying when it comes to racing; “grams make ounces, ounces make pounds.” I am very adamant about saving weight, as in my case, weight = power.”
Narita Dog Fight chose to install their Stabilizer Bar with adjustable endlinks and a subframe brace, however – both are purely optional. The Tanabe Stabilizer bar is designed to mount with the OEM Civic brackets as well as utilize OEM endlinks and clear all OEM components including the exhaust.
“As I mentioned previously, a common problem with running an aftermarket sway bar is exhaust clearance. You won’t run into this problem with the Tanabe bar. The shape of the bar parallels that of an OEM one, as opposed to running a more straight across design, which allows you to run a variety of aftermarket exhausts without running into any fitment problems.”
“The night after the install I took a spirited drive around a specific area of roads I like to drive on and I could immediately feel an increase in the cars ability to rotate in cornering. I used to run no rear sway bar, and heavy front aero to help the car’s rear rotate through turns, however, with the addition of the rear sway bar, the negation of understeer is very apparent. This is easily one of the most cost efficient ways to improve the handling of your vehicle.”
Thank you Narita Dog Fight for the informative article.
