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Originally Posted by JustAWhisper
I ended up buying a Hotchkis bar set as well. Despite the cheap price on the Whiteline, I'm pretty sure it's a solid bar and after doing some math, I estimate that it will be way too stiff even on the soft setting. Hotchkis should be very similar to Dinan, which starts at 57% stiffer and goes to roughly 200%.
Unfortunately, I did not get the bar in time to run the Champ Tour this weekend. However, I did poll my competitors (there were several M2's there) and I got a wide variety of responses. One front runner ran his Dinan bar on full stiff before upgrading his shocks (not sure what he does now, but it's apples and oranges once you change shocks), while another front runner swapped his bar back to stock overnight between Day 1 and Day 2.
In theory, the stiffer front bar will improve transitional response, which is helpful in autocross, especially slaloms. This is effectively reducing the time it takes for the suspension to resettle which makes it easier for the driver to maintain a proper racing line and get on the power quicker. On the flip side, a stiffer front bar will reduce peak grip up front which generally increases understeer and could actually make the car slower if the bar is too stiff. However, on strut cars it also reduces dynamic camber loss and mitigates that somewhat. It's a bit car dependent. My old E36 reacted extremely postively to a much stiffer front bar with noticeably improved front grip, while the E46 tended to understeer even with a mildly stiff bar.
I agree with your assessment that the M2 handles quite well right out of the box and doesn't need serious fixing. You may decide you prefer the stock setup. But you have the bar so you might as well try it. Sometimes it's more about changing the feel to make it more comfortable to drive fast than fixing a problem or making the car faster. I think the wide variety of setups I saw this weekend indicates that driver style/preference is probably a dominating factor here.
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Vegas CT BS lineup looked great, was eyeing the results last night. Seems like Supra/M2/M2C all have a shot this year. Will just come down to driver and prep.
Thanks for the thoughts on sways, mirrors my own experience in prior cars with dynamic camber loss. Will have to just swap it on and try it out. I definitely feel this car doesn't need more understeer, but transitional response will be crucial if Im able to register for the Finger Lakes Champ Tour. From videos it seems like that event is heavy on transitions. Shocks might be the best answer to be honest. You can valve them to give them good transitional response without sacrificing grip or overall balance. Or so Strano says, I know nothing of this sort of thing haha. Not a lot of off the shelf shocks available for the OG M2. Anyone know if the shock mounts are the same as other 2 series or are they from the F80?
FWIW locally I've had a couple events with Danny Kao in his 21 Supra (technically AS, but I'm not sure why it's bumped up vs the 20) on A052 (275 square). Both cars stock otherwise and I think the M2 has a slight edge TBH. Just for fun here they are side by side. I was late and picked up a +1 in the final slalom, but data says it actually cost me .2 from there through the finish vs my prior run so I still think my raw vs his clean run is an ok comparison.