E46 BMW Hotchkis Sway Bars On Track and Road Review
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00:00What do you do when you have a BMW E46 with a naturally aspirated engine and you got some
00:05money for mods?
00:07You put it into the suspension.
00:19So I think I was smart.
00:21I bought an E46 BMW with the ZSP package.
00:26That means that I have the sport suspension.
00:30So I thought to myself, hey, I don't really need to buy a set of coilovers or lowering
00:35springs or Bilstein shocks right now because the suspension setup is actually pretty good.
00:42And it is.
00:43So what I decided to do was put some money into sway bars.
00:48I got a set of Hotchkiss, I think I'm saying that right, adjustable sway bars, front and
00:54rear with the adjustable end links.
00:57So I thought, why not adjust the sway bars?
01:00Because that's where I'm getting a little bit of my issues, is a little bit of body
01:04roll.
01:05Front and back isn't too bad.
01:06Ride height is good.
01:07It's very comfortable.
01:08But I thought, I kind of want to control the lateral motion of the car a little bit more.
01:14So I put some Hotchkiss sway bars in and I can wholeheartedly and fully recommend them.
01:20There is a massive difference.
01:24When in corners, you really don't feel the body lean nearly as much.
01:29I also have a Saab 9-3 Aero, which has lowered sport suspension from 2006.
01:36It's a quick car.
01:37Really good suspension system.
01:38The chassis isn't nearly as good as a BMW to begin with.
01:41But I put Kona Yellow adjustable dampers in that.
01:47That thing can't even hold a candle to this car.
01:51So I put these sway bars in.
01:53They were actually quite easy to install.
01:57The adjustable end links are fantastic.
01:59You can really change the location of the sway bar relative to the control arm in the
02:04rear.
02:08And I also really liked the mounting plates that they gave you for the bushings.
02:13I'll show you some pictures, or I'll show you a picture of a comparison between the
02:17old front bar, old front bar in this car, and the new front Hotchkiss bar.
02:23You can see the difference.
02:24Totally different size, design, strength, obviously.
02:28I believe the Hotchkiss bars are hollow.
02:31I'm not sure how that has any bearing on long-term rigidity.
02:35I can't comment on that yet.
02:37But I can certainly tell you that they don't weigh that much for how big they look.
02:42The coolest part about the Hotchkiss sway bars is that they're fully adjustable.
02:47You've got several points on the front and rear to tighten them or loosen them.
02:52And that allows you to start doing proper, real chassis tuning, which is great.
02:58Because if you don't have coilovers and you just have one ride height and you have regular
03:03sway bars, you're very limited on how you can tune the chassis if you're actually concerned
03:07about real performance driving.
03:09So with the Hotchkiss bars, you can at least try and stiffen up the front or the rear and
03:13play around with that to get the understeer, oversteer characteristics that you want for
03:18track driving or for racing or for autocross.
03:22When I first installed them, I noticed an immediate difference.
03:24And the reason that I noticed an immediate difference is because of the first downside
03:28of Hotchkiss sway bars, or I suppose any super stiff sway bars in any car.
03:33When I drove out of my driveway for the first time, I drive out in a little bit of an angle,
03:38and immediately I noticed a huge back and forth thunk feeling.
03:42There wasn't any noise, no knocks or anything, but I noticed a huge difference in the way
03:46the car went over bumps.
03:48Now this definitely has a play on back roads like this one, where you can really feel the
03:54undulations in the road.
03:57If you dip one tire down, since the sway bars are so strong, it connects both tires together
04:03and you feel that kind of drop in the side of the car laterally across the entire chassis.
04:10So I thought that that was a little bit of a downside for me personally.
04:14It's almost like you sacrifice some high speed stability.
04:17So here is a look at what the car looks like well within the speed limits on a regular
04:23corner.
04:24You can see that there isn't actually that much visual body roll.
04:29Remember, this is the stock sport suspension, and to be perfectly honest, I think that the
04:33suspension in this car is actually quite worn out.
04:35I've been planning on replacing it at some point, but it's good enough now, it doesn't
04:39really bother me.
04:40So take a look, and you will see there.
04:44You can notice that the car is not doing a big old Cadillac lean, which is really nice.
04:52Changing directions abruptly, back and forth, you can really notice the stiffness.
04:57There is still a little bit of body roll.
04:59If you were to compare it to something with a really low center of gravity and stiff suspension
05:04like a Scion FR-S or a Subaru BRZ, you would notice this still moving back and forth a
05:10little bit.
05:11It's not something that is bothersome or an issue in terms of handling.
05:17The chassis in the E46 is already fantastic for handling, so this is just a complete addition
05:22and I would completely recommend it.
05:27So if you'd like, you can take a look at some track footage here.
05:32It's difficult to see because I only have footage from the inside of the car, but you
05:36can tell that the car does handle well and everything is fine.
06:06I have the front bar set at the softest setting and the rear bar set at the softest setting.
06:36I think that I'm going to stiffen up the rear bar for my next track session to see
06:40if I can induce a little bit more oversteer.
06:44It just seems like the car wanted to plow a little bit and if I had a picture, I don't
06:49think I do, of my front tires after that track session, you can see that I was really having
06:54to focus on trail braking to try and keep the weight over the nose of the car.
06:59My driving technique is by no means perfect, but I did notice that there was a difference
07:05in the understeer, oversteer characteristics.
07:07Something that I'm excited to try out for those track junkies and those who are really
07:11into suspension tuning, I've heard, I don't know if anyone can substantiate this, I've
07:16heard that the suspension geometry in an E46 is set up such that if you put a stiffer front
07:23bar, you're going to actually increase front end grip because there's a point based on
07:28the geometry of the suspension, when you get too much suspension travel, you actually lose
07:34a little bit of negative camber and the lack of negative camber results in less front grip
07:41and therefore more understeer.
07:43So I'm going to try a stiffer rear bar first, see how that handles, and then I will do a
07:49stiffer front bar and see if it's completely the opposite.
07:53I'm sure the stiffer rear bar is going to give you a pretty good idea of how it's set
07:57up, but we'll find out, I guess.
07:59So I would completely recommend the Hotchkiss sway bars, I have nothing bad to say about
08:03them, they're incredibly well built and you have my vote for those.
08:08Stay tuned for more reviews like this as well as DIYs and a coming comparison between this
08:14car and another car that I think should be a rival to it.