Biggest effect on fun-to-drive handling - Better tires or rear sway bar?

[Cobrajet]

I'm just waiting to wear the rubber out on these first tyres so I can buy a set of five 15 x 7's....

The factory Dunlops suck...you won't have to wait long!

[alex16]

I've driven so many cars, upgraded suspensions on so many cars and I will tell everyone, doesn't matter what car but if it doesn't come with a rear sway bar that should always be the first modification. My enesaves are so tiny yet I can grip the road in my mirage better than my civic with the UR sway bar. Sway bars make such a huge difference without affecting the ride as much as a coilover/aftermarket spring set up. I wish UR had a few different sizes of sway bars. Tires IMO are second if your looking for handling, after the sway bar. Once you have wider tires then start looking at suspension setups, for me I really want some 15X7s on my Mirage with coilovers, but for now I think stock tires with tien/UR sway bar are good enough to make me happy. I can easily out pace most cars in the corners with my enasaves, I know their limit and I have fun with them while getting mpg, I will be giving the Bridgstone insight tires a test when the enasaves are gone.

[Mistah JT]

From what others are saying, an Ultra Racing rear sway bar has a major effect on sway... like 70% improvement.

It's the first thing I'll be doing, after taking a look underneath and seeing how the rear beams aren't tied together.

Has little effect on stock suspension. They aren't driving the car hard enough. The stock spring rates are way too low. New springs/coilovers eliminate body roll a lot better than the UR bars.

[laceygirl]

The factory Dunlops suck...you won't have to wait long!

Hi Cobrajet, in Australia the LS's came with Bridgestone Potenza's, really good tyres... So it will be at least a year....

[alex16]

I had my ur racing sway bar on before the h&r spring swap and it made a huge difference, the springs just added to the flat Corning. I thought about going back to stock springs because the car handles so well with just the sway bar and is so much softer of a ride.

[Cobrajet]

You can spend a lot of money on suspension stuff. But if the tires are 4" wide and you are rolling over onto the sidewalls in every turn struts and springs and sway bars won't help as much as they should.

[db1980]

You can spend a lot of money on suspension stuff. But if the tires are 4" wide and you are rolling over onto the sidewalls in every turn struts and springs and sway bars won't help as much as they should.

I feel like with my car this is what drives me nuts the most. Body roll does not bother me much, but I feel like I can "feel" the tires rolling onto the sidewall. This is with the Dunlop Enasaves. I don't drive aggressively, and I agree the springs and shocks are a bit soft, but I also like the compliant ride. Honestly, at just under 20,000 miles my Dunlops are looking a bit worn, so they will probably end up being replaced instead of the sway bar by default. I am not a fan of these tires. They cost twice as much as "normal" tires, don't last very long, and handle like crap. I understand they picked them for MPG ratings, but would it have killed them to use a different tire on the ES models? I mean, the cost savings would have paid for a factory sway bar...at the expense of a couple of mpg, and they could still claim the non hybrid mpg crown on the DE models.

I will give them credit for one thing, they do well in snow and rain, but that might be a function of width rather than brand/model.

[Daox]

As with all things I think 'it depends'.

For the money, IMO the rear sway bar is a no brainer and first mod. This is especially true if you want to keep the stock soft ride that soaks up bumps like a much larger car. This is what I go for in most of my vehicles as I'm not doing autocross or anything. I just like a bit more stability and flat handling around corners, but I don't want to feel every little bump in Wisconsin (which is a LOT of bumps).

If you're looking for a bit more grip to really tear around corners you're really going to need tires, sway bar and springs as you're going to a whole new level. All of these are going to compliment each other.

[25Plus]

If you want to have a car, that has a good balance, in my opinion you need the following parts in this order:

- better springs (reducing body roll a lot and understeering, too)
- rear sway bar (reducing the rest of understeering for sure)

This would be enough in my opinion to have a lot more fun with the car and if you don´t want to spend a lot of money.

If you want to drive quicker around corners, you should begin with wider tires. But body roll will be even bigger and understeering will be unaffected, so I wouldn´t do this, because performance (topspeed/acceleration) will worsen. So this would be my choice for highest cornering speeds:

- wider tires and rims
- better springs
- rear sway bar

Forces on the chassis and body will be much higher, so you should go on with body stiffening, beginning with a strut brace and going on with the rest of body stiffening.

[cinder]

Here's a video of the 2015 Mirage on the Motorweek test track . No upgrades . Not so bad . https://youtu.be/zvays8Zsulg?t=214