Front Sway Bar - Better Turn In?

Wondering what you guys think of this:

I built some brackets that attach to the end of the OEM front sway bar the RX-8 earlier today and got them all installed. Basically, these just let me shorten the lever arm on the bar by about 2". This should result in a 30-40% more spring rate from the bar. I'm hoping to get a little more rear traction in the back of the car in auto-x.

After installing this setup, I took the car for a quick spin and noticed that it seems to turn in much more aggressively. When I toss the car into a corner the front tires really seem to grab more suddenly and initiate the turn more crisply. I wasn't really expecting this, and was just hoping to dial back oversteer in the corners.

Is this a typical secondary effect of installing a stiffer front bar? Let me know what you guys think.

In case you're curious, here's what the bracket assembly looks like. The ring goes around the bar and the elongated slot on the L-shaped piece attaches where the OEM endlink would bolt to the bar. The endlink is then mounted in any of the hole on the bottom of the L-shaped piece. I didn't bother putting the hardware or bar in the model, so it might be a little confusing...

Oh, and in case you want to know why I bothered with this, it's because I'm too cheap to go buy a bar, and I don't want to mess up the stock bar in case I want to go back to using it again or decide I want to modify the rear bar (stock class).

Yes...a bigger bar will help turn-in. It helps the car transition (slalom) better, which is a reason why its a pretty common mod in the autocross community. The down side is that the car may be more pushy on corner-off on the sweepers.

That's a pretty sweet bracket. If you made more, I'd likely buy a pair.

In reply to ST_ZX2:

Ok, I was thinking about it more this morning and that makes sense. I guess it's a lot like putting on stiffer springs. I was just expecting it to be mostly a steady-state cornering effect.

It's funny I never really associated sway bars with improved turn-in, I guess it's because I've never changed one on a car that didn't have really stiff springs to begin with.

In reply to mw:

I'll let you know. I want to make sure they hold up to some racin' before I start claiming that they're worth anything.

Keep us posted on how it holds up. I also have an RX8 that needs some stiffening up in the front bar and would consider buying a set from you if it works.