Our New 2012 PRHT SS Project....

[Brian]

Will be installing the new Progress Sways on this project Saturday.

Header will likely be another week before latest prototype gets installed.

[AZ Sun Lover]

Will be installing the new Progress Sways on this project Saturday.

Header will likely be another week before latest prototype gets installed.

Thanks Brian.

Any hints on other mods on your "wife's" street car, other than trying RS mufflers?

Hmm, mod's are why my wife let me get my own MX-5. Her car, your toy (or in your case a new test car).

Good luck,
AZ

[Brian]

Today.....the new SS Project got to play with some sways! The wife really is driving this project and providing me feedback on her impressions as we go. She finished her first year of racing and I am very curious as to her impressions and feedback on this street toy. This past week she talked about how she would like less lean in the corners. Thus, it is time for sways....and we just happened to have a prototype set from Progress that we need to test fit for them.

[Brian]

First impression, nicely finished. Front bar is tubular, rear bar is solid. Jeff at Progress explained that he wants to do solid in the rear for longevity (he had heard about some of the rear tubular bar failures). Triple adjustable front, double adjustable rear. Powder coating is flawless. Front sway bar construction from Progress is interesting in that they do not like the pinched and drilled tube style that most companies use. They think long term performance and reliability is best with their method which uses a solid end piece welded into the tube. What impressed me more was the front bracket, HEAVILY REINFORCED with TIG-welded steel side plates (no worries about flex in these). Progress seems serious about product longevity and another feature they include is the welded on slide stoppers. A number of brands use something pinched onto the bar that can move. Without getting into the debate about whether movement of those pinched on styles is really an issues, certainly this welded on slide stopper style will not move.

[Brian]

Off comes the rear bar. An Allen Key holds the center of the endlinks from spinning so you can put a 14mm wrench to work.

[Brian]

Shown here is the factory front brackets during removal. I like to crack loose all the nuts involved first (links and brackets) BEFORE I start removing them. Or to put it another way, if you start on one side and remove each completely before cracking loose the rest then when you get down to the last nut you may find you have a bar flopping around making it much harder than it should be to get that last nut loose.


One of the interesting things about NC2 for you owners of NC1 is how the factory simply foam filled a number of the suspension/chassis bits to lower NVH. As you can see from the holes where the foam oozed out. This could certainly be done relatively easy to the same parts in 2006-2008 NC.

[Brian]

Everybody wants to see the side by side comparison. Factory bars are off, Progress Sways going on....

[Brian]

And this is why we test fit before production! Had a bunch of emails from MX5 owners who already own and LOVE our Progress Springs but impatient to match them with these Progress sways. Thanks for waiting... we are very happy to catch this little issue you see here BEFORE production. As you can see, just a slight interference between the beefy Progress front bracket and the factory ABS clips. We saw this same issue with the first batch of Hotchkis sways....after they had already shipped to dealers and their solution was instructions to customers to grind the bracket (which was not well received with some customers). We will have Progress make the minor adjustment needed here to avoid any fitment issue in the production item (LOWER PICTURE)


LATER UPDATE (UPPER PICTURE): Progress makes the brackets in volume and did not want to mod the bracket. We thus came up with simple solution which is a thick washer/spacer that lifts the factory ABS connector so it sits slightly higher than the bracket. Notice small screw driver holding the spacer up so that I can tighten down the ABS bracket bolt.

[Brian]

Install COMPLETE!

I hit a few local ramps and car is much flatter. In stock form I did some freeway transition ramps that made the car feel nervous at speeds over 60 mph... with lots of lean (and requiring quite an alarming amount of steering correction if you add or subtract substantial amounts of throttle while at full lean at speed). With the Progress sways now installed the same ramps can be taken with more speed and much less drama and throttle steer. The effect is noticeable...yet less dramatic than I expected because the soggy factory spring rates are still allowing more lean and wiggle and wander than I like. Will let the wife give it a spin and see what she thinks!

[Michele]

Brian,

Thanks for posting the Progress anti-sway bar review. Well done. I'm considering those in the future.

I also look forward to your reviews for the exhaust systems that you were planning to test in December on the 2012 PRHT. I have not seen any more comments about exhaust systems.

[JonU]

Brian,

I know it's early, but any idea on pricing?

Jon

[AZ Sun Lover]

And this is why we test fit before production! Had a bunch of emails from MX5 owners who already own and LOVE our Progress Springs but impatient to match them with these Progress sways. Thanks for waiting... we are very happy to catch this little issue you see here BEFORE production. As you can see, just a slight interference between the beefy Progress front bracket and the factory ABS clips. We saw this same issue with the first batch of Hotchkis sways....after they had already shipped to dealers and their solution was instructions to customers to grind the bracket (which was not well received with some customers). We will have Progress make the minor adjustment needed here to avoid any fitment issue in the production item.

Brian,
I sent Michelle @ Progress some OEM sway-bar brackets with plug and play, polly bushings tonight. Two of the bushings are the ones that come with H&R sway-bars (these don't need lubed). Eibach made sway-bars for the RX-8 with a front 27mm solid & a rear 18mm (don't know if it was solid or hollow). They didn't go over well, so they were discontinued.

Thanks for your advice Brian.
AZ

[Reitrof]

One of the interesting things about NC2 for you owners of NC1 is how the factory simply foam filled a number of the suspension/chassis bits to lower NVH. As you can see from the holes where the foam oozed out. This could certainly be done relatively easy to the same parts in 2006-2008 NC.

Brian,

Could you tell us which pieces have been foamed?

[Brian]

One of the interesting things about NC2 for you owners of NC1 is how the factory simply foam filled a number of the suspension/chassis bits to lower NVH. As you can see from the holes where the foam oozed out. This could certainly be done relatively easy to the same parts in 2006-2008 NC.

Brian,

Could you tell us which pieces have been foamed?

No, I was not under there to carefully catalog which pieces they foamed, just found it interesting that several are foamed on NC2 versus NC1. Anyway, doesn't really matter which pieces they foamed, if I was to foam an NC1 then I would do every section that I can get access to.

[Brian]

Brian,

I know it's early, but any idea on pricing?

Jon

They have not settled price yet.....