Technical Features
Project A3 DSG: Neuspeed Adjustable Rear Sway Bar
By by: Brian McCauley, photos by author and George Achorn
May 8, 2006, 09:08

We’ve been plenty happy with Project A3 DSG since the installation of a KW Variant 3 coilover suspension. However, there’s always room for improvement, and thought we might be able to make the Audi a little bit more lively around corners with the installation of a rear sway bar. To that end, there is a selection of offerings on the market to choose from, and one of the more interesting is a Neuspeed 25mm adjustable unit sourced through North American Motorsports (www.namotorsports.net).

For now, 2.0T equipped with front-wheel drive only – what Audi terms as FrontTrak. quattro would be nice, but you’ll have to the heavier 3.2 V6 for that. As such, front-wheel drive is the only option for owners of A3s like ours. When you’re looking to improve the handling of any front-wheel drive car, it’s important to understand the physics of front-wheel drive versus rear-wheel drive or all-wheel drive.

Understeer and Oversteer

Understeer is a notorious characteristic of a front-wheel drive vehicle where, under hard cornering, the front end of the car will “push” or not turn as much as you want it to. This is induced by entering into a turn or departing a turn where the tires are approaching their limit very rapidly and the car takes a wider radius curve than the driver intended. For instance: the driver wants to make a very sharp left going quickly beyond the grip capability of the front tires, which makes the car “push” in a wider curve or even keep heading in a straight line until speed slows and a correction can be made. Understeer is more easily coped with by less-skilled drivers and thus a generally welcome tendancy to dial in for car manufacturers.

Oversteer is common for a rear wheel drive car to produce because power from the rear wheels will cause them to spin more readily. Oversteer occurs when the rear tires approach their traction limit faster than the front tires, bringing the tail of the car around, steering more than the the driver intends and is sometimes referred to as “step-out” or “fishtail”. The more dangerous of the two when happening to an inexperienced driver, oversteer will cause the car to spin out when too much gas is applied and not enough steering is dialed in.

However, oversteer is a desirable tendancy for a skilled driver, for autocrossers or on a race car. Entering corners, a driver wants the back end to step-out a little in order to get the car to rotate more easily while entering a corner in order to maintain a better angle of entry which results in generally more speed carried through a turn and a exit line for acceleration.

On a front wheel drive car like this Audi A3, the factory suspension tends to understeer – engineered for the driving skills of most drivers. After a fair share of autocrossing, I learned that a nice suspension will do wonders and the addition of a good rear sway bar will finally bestow the car with a tendency to oversteer just enough to make things fun and improve lap times.

Even after installing a rear sway bar, most front-wheel drive cars still understeer due to the lack of front camber adjustment, but the rear sway bar will help considerably. So a rear sway bar is not the end-all answer to suspension perfection though it certainly will start you in the right direction toward improved handling characteristics.


Neuspeed Adjustable Rear Swaybar

When the Neuspeed adjustable rear swaybar became available, we were immediately intrigued. Experience with previous Neuspeed bars set our expectations high – known for quality workmanship and ease of install. Additionally, the adjustability of the bar allows the driver to set it on soft, medium, or stiff and dial the car in to what kind of driving they wish to do.

Adjustment is performed by positioning the connecting bolt to the car in one of two available holes on each end of the bar (see picture). In a previous application, I started off with the soft setting, but after a few autocross runs changed it to stiff to see the difference. During the next run I spun the car out in a slalom and knew I had what I wanted, now I just needed to improve my control of the newfound oversteer. With this previous experience, I knew that when installing the Neuspeed bar on the A3, the stiff setting was going to be the only one for me.

The differences of the settings are pretty simple. The stiffer the setting, the more the back end will rotate (to an extent). Set on soft, the driver will hardly notice the bar is even there. But, set on stiff, the driver will physically feel a difference while driving and see an even bigger difference when throwing the car into a corner.

The other benefit to installing a larger rear sway bar on a front-wheel drive car is that it reduces the amount of understeer the car will display in hectic situations in daily driving. This tends to be viewed as a very favorable characteristic and will give a great driving experience when pushed to the limits.

The sway bar also helps reduce body roll during hard cornering but does not have a negative effect on the car while driving in a straight line. Being hollow compared to the solid stock bar, the Neuspeed sway bar also helps shed a little weight off the back end as well - another bonus.

To source the bar, we made a quick call to North American Motorsports and ordered up the 25mm bar. The Neuspeed bar was in stock and shipped immediately, arriving a few days later – no fuss.

Within the week, our A3 was back with Derek Scott at Exklusiv Motorsports to install the new component.



With the car was up on the lift, the proper bolts needing to be removed were eyed and the air gun started to hum. With a lift and an air gun, the install takes all of 15-20 minutes. Only a few bolts need to be removed to release the stock bar so it can be easily separated from the car - the directions couldn’t be easier. In order to prep the Neuspeed bar, with the supplied grease, apply to the inside of two polyurethane bushings provided and slip over the sway-bar so that the bar can easily rotate during cornering. Then slide it over the exhaust and reattach the two bolts used to mount the stock sway bar. Full installation instructions are included in a link below.

With the car back together, it was time for a proper test drive – driving it hard. Timing worked well, and I attended the SoCal R32 GTG and track day at The Streets of Willow Springs in Lancaster, CA. Driving the car on a real road course would really expose the nuances of the new handling characteristics.



In order to prepare the car, a quick call was made to Tom Edge at KW suspensions to get tips on adjusting the compression of the rear struts. We settled on a compression of 3 turns from closed which would give the rear struts harder compression and allow the back of the car to rotate even more easily and not be as “soft.” With this setting, coupled with the Neuspeed rear sway bar set on full stiff, I was able to get the back of the car to rotate just enough around certain corners of the track with the aid of some throttle modulation.

The car performed beautifully other than being hindered by running on our show wheels and tires – great looking, but not optimal for the track. The tightness of the suspension coupled with the bar removed a lot of the car’s tendency to understeer and gave it a good enough ability to rotate the tail and oversteer while entering and exiting corners. It was great to use the car in this type of safe environment and really learn its capabilities, pushing it to the limits.



The track event behind us, another set of 18-inch wheels with Falken RT615 tires have been ordered for the upcoming autocross season and to act as an emergency spare tire on long trips.

The overall impression of the 25mm adjustable Neuspeed bar is one of satisfaction. Its highquality steel tubing design , lower-weight, high-gloss red powdercoated surface, and ease of install make it quite worth putting on your must-have list. This particular bar will fit the Audi A3 and both the fifth generation Volkswagen GTI, Jetta and the latest B6 Passat B6 with front-wheel drive applications.

More Information

Project A3 DSG Main Page North American Motorsports Neuspeed (Including 'How-To' Install Instructions)

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