"That thing's got too much body roll in it, by design!" said Editor Mike Guy, referring to my 1992 Miata MX-5 Miata. And he's right, it does have a lot of body roll. Me, I'm a Sunday driver and like things bouncy. Our friend Carlos Dos Santos at Brooklyn Motor Works is a bit different—he likes things tight and tuned, and tightly tuned. So in this episode of DIY Lab, we're going to rip out the stock Mazda sway bars and stick in some seriously stiffer upgraded sway bars (in red).
The upgrade should provide great improvements to handling in the corners, important for where this car is mostly driven: the backroads of upstate New York. Up there, the turns are tight and the guard rails near. Steering precision is a prized possession.
Join us to see how the upgrade goes. Notably, the old sway bars are rusted, but rusted in a very specific spot where the bars flexed the most, causing the paint to crack away and thus allowing the rust. Also, in relative terms, if the old bars were pencil-thick, the new bars are approximately Sharpie-thick.