They (rears only) perform better than stock FE5s. Not as bouncy with Pedders. Not that the stockers aren't any good..they are. I have the Konis close to FULL SOFT (1/4 turn out) and they're perfect. I had em set at 1 full turn off soft and they were definitely way too stiff with the Pedders on.

Got my attention. Curious about a bit more feedback. But they are tempting since i now have 50k on my FE3 shocks/struts.

I have stock SS front struts and Koni rear shocks with Eibach Pro-kit springs an fe5 front bar and a XXX rear bar and it works great on the street. This is my street setup.

Scott

Who makes the front brace your running?
Sounds like this could be a good idea for my driving style.

Wow WOW! I just received the powell XXX bar. It’s huge!!! I cant wait to get it on! (no gay jokes)

Powell Race shop kicks a$$. They accidentally sent me the wrong part (which is why I was confused about hardcore vs. XXX lol) but, they caught their own mistake and sent me the correct part with out me even asking! Awesome guys, outstanding integrity.

I am concerned about one thing. How loose is the xxx bar going to make my car? I have pedder springs and I used to have the eibach rear sway bar. So, with the powell xxx bar could my car become snap loose when I lift in a turn, or will it remain neutral?

How much TQ should I pit on each bolt? 40lb?

gudentite

Where would I go to order this? LOL

^:lol:

unless your road racing and have track experiance this bar isnt for you buy the hardcore bar.

snap loose with that large of a bar lol? its going to be real tight in the back

If you lift mid corner its gonna come around on you, i speaking from experience with the hardcore bar on my all seasons its not gonna snap loose on you it should be very predictable. If your not comfortable with that you may have gotten the wrong bar. But, I'll trade you if you want and shipping is on me ;)

personally i do not think he should start with a xxx bar without using a hardcore bar first. like you said the rear is very predictable and should not snap on you.

Matty try it first. Its an interesting change

I now use 50 ft lbs for the XXX. and no snap oversteer I have found. I was driving truck all weekend to and from race track so no RL XXX time for me. This week. So far so good i will say; and Matt is being cautious advising peeps on this bar and caution is a good thing...not sure over the internet about driving skills lol

Here's the site for the twin sub-frame bar: Twin Sub Frame Bar - $129.99 : Rebel Auto Worxs.ca \ -- I like it.

I just finished driving 1900+ miles from my home in Colorado to "Front Sight" in Pahrump, NV for a 4-day defensive (combat) pistol shooting course -- through the rain, in the dry, and even a little snow -- all with the XXX bar and I had no problems of any kind. And I pushed it just to see what happened -- nothing ill happened! I was on Eibach Pro-kit springs, over stock struts and Koni rear shocks, on 235/45 x 17 Kumho street tires.

I just re-installed the GC coilovers today so I can autocross the car next Saturday. When I'm done, I'll provide a report.

Scott

ah.. Yeah figured you meant the RAW bar... Was hoping there was another as Im not too sure on how reliable rebel is anymore.

send it over. im sure it is. thats no questions asked. im just not going to recommend it to someone who hasent atleast experianced what a hardcore bar can do first.

Could you please provide pics of this on your car or any other car? Rebel didn't provide one mounted on the car.

Looks like it mounts between the LCA's here..bolting between pivot mounts/ pins.

http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/i...g?t=1257737885

I don't see the benefit here, since you have a fairly beefy solid steel boxed subframe already. How is putting a bar inside this frame going to add anything?

http://zapleaf.com/wp-content/upload...alt-Arrows.jpg

Ronn I agree, thats a hydroformed cradle well made; Coppertop01 on RLF and OCC made those, and for all I know still can make them. But other than making it difficult to work under the car, I see no need. Coppertop does great work but back in '04 he was just trying to find ways to make the car better. So as I said, in my opinion, that cradle brace is not really needed.

thank for the advice jboogie. I dont plan on doing any crazy driving. When I get the chance I'll go a wet parking lot and throw it around to get the feel for it.

I wanna kno when ppl say they drove it hard. How HARD is hard for them?
everyone has a oh sh1t meter that they go barely pass and call it drivng hard.
I see driving it hard is like F1 car driving hard ^_^

link for the bar/cobalt parts at powell?

^^^^ Not yet; the next few days we will get our new site up and running....

This is awesome! Definitely one of the next things I will get for my car!

Also I'm surprised I haven't seen you around before. You should sign up at 5280cobalts.com, we have several members that go out to high planes raceway, would love to have you join!

I'm on Pedder's, -1.9 degrees front camber,1/8th toe out and have had the XXX on for about a week with know issues. The daily rubber is a very done set of OE conti's and I do at times get on it but no surprises, even a decreasing radius offramp at the higher end of second gear caused no real rotation so I lifted part way through the next time and everything was very predictable. If you drive like a Jackass you will stuff it sooner or later, the bar may speed it up but not as much as you would think. I do understand cautioning people about the bar as MOST simply don't need it. Well done John!

Autocrossing with the XXX bar
 

I said I'd report when I autocrossed the car, so here's the report.

I took the car out last Saturday, temps were in the mid - high 60s. I ran on the 700 lb front and 650 lb rear Eibach springs, Koni struts and shocks, with -1.55 negative camber in the rear and about -3.0 degrees up front, and all the rest of the stuff you've already heard about. I was on my two-year-old (the age is significant) Hoosier 255/35x18 A6 tires -- 35 psi front and 41 psi rear.

The car is no longer as twitchy as it was. It doesn't seem as though the rear end is coming around as quickly and suddenly as it used to -- overall it's in much better control. I attribute this to the stiffer sway keeping both rear tires firmly in contact all the time (not rolling over on the outside tire as much). Overall much more predictable. For the first time in a long time, I overran my tires -- all four sliding sideways at the max. The Hoosiers are still basically wearing evenly front and rear but I obviously pushed the fronts a bit -- the outside edges showed a bit more wear than I have seen so I'm probably going to up the front tire pressures the next time out.

I ended up in 2nd place behind a "Bimmerhaus" prepared 325 BMW -- his best time on the course was his first run (on new tires) at 48.8 and my best run (3rd run) was a 50.1. This guy is a national-level STX driver who has just switched to DSP. He's on new 285/30x18 Hoosiers. The course had three almost 180 degree, very tight turns. I suspect we'll even out over time because -- #1 he's currently running new tires and #2 because the really tight course favored the lower powered, professionally prepared BMW.

I'm still thinking seriously about buying a set of 275/35x18 AC Goodyears before this year's Nationals. I've read good things about them.

Bottom line: I highly recommend the XXX to those who can run it.

Scott