Progress Technologies NC Generation MX5 AntiSway Bar Combo
2006-2015
OUR BEST NC SWAYS!
PART NUMBER: 61-1232
DESCRIPTION
Our BEST MX5 Sways! These Front and Rear PROGRESS MX5 Miata sway bars were developed on our own Forum 2012 PRHT Project Car! A perfect match for our Progress Springs to make your MX5 corner flat and stable through the most challenging turns!
Progress MX5 anti-roll bars dramatically improve handling. How? They minimize the traction-robbing body "lean" that rolls part of the outside tires off the pavement. Our Sport-tuned Anti-roll MX5 Miata Sway bars replace skinny OEM Miata Sway bars and rubber bushings with larger diameter (stiffer) alloy steel bars and polyurethane bushings.
More roll stiffness means less body "lean", and the tires stay flatter on the pavement (larger contact patches). The result is more grip and added driver control!
-Less body roll means more traction, faster cornering speeds, and increased driver confidence.
-Polyurethane bushings produce crisp response on turn-in. Progress Anti-roll bars are cold-formed in-house using custom-built precision bending equipment. Laser-cut and CNC bar ends are MIG welded in place using a precise fixture for an exact fit that is more durable than alternatives used by some other choices.
Features:
-Size: FRONT 28.5 mm (hollow bar; 6.35mm side-wall)
-Size: REAR 17.5 mm SOLID (both front and rear slightly stiffer than our Racing Beat choice)
-Adjustment Range: Front 3 holes, Rear 2 holes
-All sway bars are powdercoated metallic gray.
-One year limited warranty
BRIAN'S APPLICATION NOTES. These are SERIOUS! We had a number of customers wanting something more serious than our 1 inch front bar choices so we worked with Progress for more than a year on development. The resulting bars are a little stiffer than most choices. My wife just loves the combination in our 2012, the car is wonderfully flat and stable...and a blast to drive on freeway on-ramps and mountain roads! These bars are finished off MUCH nicer than most choices, in some ways that will not be obvious from the little photos. One aspect of the higher quality in these bars is the brackets, which are MUCH more stout than the mounting bracket of any other sway bar choice we offer. The Brackets are heavily gusseted and WIDER to prevent flex and to give the wider bushings more coverage of the bar. Let's look at a picture of the Front Fully Gusseted and Cadmium plated Progress MX5 Sway Bar Brackets!
Think about the effect of those WIDER brackets! The extra width in the bracket means less stress for the bushings, which results in more longevity and consistency for many years of fun driving.
Now let's look at the rear brackets. Many of our other choices supply just a new bushing for the rear that has a bigger hole in it for the bigger bar and you recycle the factory tin brackets. That is a very efficient choice and helps keep cost low, but those thin tin factory rear brackets are just 'okay' and can easily be improved upon. Progress supplies rear brackets that are quite a bit more heavy duty than the factory.
Open BOTH ends of the box to find the hardware and instructions!~ These bars are a notch more serious than our Racing Beat or Hotchkis or Eibach or any other MX5 Sways we sell. Note that both these bracket decisions make install slightly more involved. The fit of these beefier brackets front and rear is tighter than the stock brackets, and Progress supplies a spacer for the front that lifts the ABS bracket above the sway bar bracket because the bracket is so much wider that it would not otherwise install. These are small prices to pay for the extra stoutness and long term reliability of the installed result.
NOTE on Settings. My wife's 2012 has the bars set to middle position in the front, and tightest position rear. At that setting (and with our Progress Springs), I can throttle steer the car comfortably and it is a blast to slide around tight turns, but with those settings the car can be spun and my wife has spun it a few times at autocross events when really pushing much harder than folks should in the real world. Thus, I strongly caution and suggest a more forgiving starting position such as middle or tightest position front (tightest is closest to center of bar) and the less tight rear setting (hole nearest bar ends) for a stock like balance of light understeer until you have some experience with the setup under controlled circumstances (such as an autocross event).
Also in our 2008 2.5 Budget Racer for HPDE fun around Sonoma Raceway.
In our latest Budget NC Project, getting the WIN and fastest thing with gas in the tank at autocross event with 50 competitors:
CUSTOMERS WHO BOUGHT THIS ITEM ALSO BOUGHT
TEAM RECOMMENDATIONS
Customer Reviews
Progress Technologies NC Generation MX5 AntiSway Bar Combo
I installed the bars over the holidays and wow. Turn in is much sharper (middle front, soft rear) and it's even flatter through turns than I anticipated. I left the sways and end links as my last modification; I'm glad I did. Very high quality product. Tremendous value for the money.
Can't agree more with the other positive reviews. These bars are the only suspension mod I've done, and I'm on stock end links and street (albeit Z-rated) tires, mid setting front and stiff setting on rear. Installation was tricky in front and requires removing the drip pan and radiator brackets, and took me, a long-time, decidedly non-professional driveway mechanic about 2 hours, but the rear was very simple and quick, 45 minutes or so. And they make my NC handle SO much more nicely. The inherent understeer is completely gone. Obvious vast improvement, and confidence-inspiring flat cornering. They make it handle even more like a go-cart, with NO adverse effect on handling. Highly recommended.
These bars are perfect. I wanted the most aggressive quality bars I could find and did not want the RB 32mm Race bar. I'm on the stock 77k mile NC2 bilsteins and stock spring. These bars transformed the car from sloppy to razorblade in the turns. I mounted both front and back in the most aggressive adjustment whole and don't see a need to switch to the other softer adjustments. Save yourself the time and get these you will not be disappointed.
Wow, what a difference they sways make to stock! You can feel the grip difference with more tire on the road. It just feels more secure and tighter and more confidence building around corners. Great value for the money.
I had done several performance mods for my car and to date the only handling mod was tires (Continental Extreme Contact DWS 06 which are amazing) but my car still rolled a good amount because, Miata. I ordered these and after the fact I was a bit worried that they'd be too much but after the install on the softest setting front and rear they turned out to be perfectly matched and feel great without being harsh at all on the bumps. Maybe an inch to two of body roll in hard corners instead of what felt like 8. Definitely recommend. I'm on stock (non Bilstein) suspension setup also.
Outstanding quality out of the box. I paired my Progress bars with Superpro endlinks. After a full aftermarket suspension install and a lowered right height. The installation went very smoothly aside from the normal cussing at lines and stuff in your way for the front bar. The rear bar (some may argue) but I found it was easiest to install the endlinks on the bars, then position the bar to where you can connect the other end of the endlink to the bracket. THEN install the main brackets for the bar itself. Leaving bolts slightly loose along the way until you can get your endlinks to the right length. Then tighten everything to torque.
Simply put after the install and first day out driving, I am blown away by the performance of both products.
I have an all-stock NC1, and the sways are like curtain rods. I decided to "start with sways", leaving the stock shocks and springs, and what a HUGE improvement! I have the Progress sways set to softest, which so far is adequate for my driving style. I may eventually upgrade shocks and springs, but not in any hurry. BUY THESE SWAYS!
These Progress sway bars are part of a $1,600.00 suspension upgrade on a 2010 purchased with 187k miles. Upgraded to: Koni Yellow, Progress Springs, these Progress sway bars and RoadsterSport End Links. I used the mildest setting of 2 on the rear and the middle setting on the front sway. The Koni shocks were set 1/4 turn stiff (out of a 2 1/4 turn range) from dead soft. After installing the shocks and springs and numerous test drives it became clear the beefier sway bars were a "must have". Installed 500 miles ago and a major major improvement in handling. Just mounted Conti DWS 06+ all around and ran my favorite "test track" yesterday to "scrub in" the new shoes. This package advised by "the boys @ GWR" hit right on for my aggressive style of driving on twisty mountain roads of western NC. Since yesterdays 60 mile test drive (151/BRP/215) ending at Oskar Blues Brewery for beer and a burger it's clear I need to make adjustments. I've kicked the shocks 1/4 turn stiffer and a brief romp around the block sez I'm heading in the right direction. Next I'll remount the sways to their stiffest setting and see what I see. I'm extremely happy with this setup even though not perfect yet I have the ability to tweak both shocks and bars to my liking. Why not coil overs? Because to match the bang to the buck I'd be looking at $1600 - $1700 for coil overs alone. This is a great setup for me - listen to the boys @ Good-Win Racing, they know their stuff.
Link to my test track: https://goo.gl/maps/8eVeWbmazRmtktfD9 (it's a 6 minute run)
A great addition to ANY miata that turns! Trust me it's worth getting this, and can be a stand alone mod or along with thousands of $$ of other suspension work, and in both cases it is just as amazing.
The installation is a bit difficult for the front bar, but if you just go at it with patience I think most everyone can do it... Having a car lift is definitely useful.
I installed this over a year ago and it has contributed to the way my miata has changed my taste in cars.
I recommend starting out with using the 'soft' holes in the back bar, and honestly whichever setting feels best to you in the front, I prefer 'stiff' in the front because it helps reduce the oversteer a little bit... STILL plenty of oversteer and drifting able to be done regardless.
Ii saved my Combat Pay for 2 tours in Vietnam and ordered my first car while there, so it was waiting for me when I came back to the US in May of '70: a '70 Jaguar XKE Roadster. Since then I've bought cars that I upgraded yo drive as good as or better than the Jag, the ffirst steps being sway bars, shocks, and air intake. my '97 Miata had Koni adjustable shocks and an Eaton Supercharger. The car I still have, before I bought the 2010 MX5 is an 02 Celica I added TRD Sways, a Greddy Supercharger, and KW Suspension. (190+ mph that handles like a slot car!
As much as I love my new MX5, I took it into a 90deg turn at the speed I'd normally drive the Celica, I felt it ready to roll or break loose.
So I immediately ordered some Koni adjustables and this sway bar Combo and again, have a car that scares the hell out of all the other people at the corner where I'm making a turn!
At 73 years old I no longer need or want the speed or response of a supercharger, so I just added a K&N air filter, some slotted drilled rotors, and Potenza tires.
So, if you are an "aggressive "Sports Car driver", these sways will definitely put a smile on your face!
This was the last modification done to the suspension and now I know why people sometimes say "Start with sways and see what happens...". I have installed them earlier this year, but unfortunately have not had the opportunity to track them until a couple of weeks ago. Oh my!! What a difference. I thought I was good with the Ohlins DFV coil-overs and stock sways, hahaha. I mean during "normal" street driving I noticed a flatter chassis and much more stability in the rear end under a somewhat aggressive throttle application when exiting turns and sweeping corners. On the autocross course the improved handing and vehicle dynamics were even more noticeable. Considerably less chassis roll that resulted in a definitely smoother transition and predictable handling characteristics. I would strongly recommend and suggest they be one of the first mods anyone do, along with capable tires. Cheers!!
Amazing product installed these along with front and rear shock tower braces what an improvement this car corners like it's on rails. I would recommend these to anyone with an NC.
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