[Driven97]

Also keep in mind that there is a such thing as going too soft and going too firm.

These cars have McStrut front ends that have very little camber gain. If you're running little static camber, and have the car lowered, you can outroll the camber gain. Lowering drops the roll center, which makes the car roll more. The car leans more, putting the tire at an unfavorable angle. That equals push. In this case, actually making the front bar stiffer could increase steady state front grip. Even though it's counter intuitive to every tuning chart.

On the flip side, the firmer you go with sway bar, the less independence you have in your suspension because you're tying the right and left together that much firmer. Single wheel bumps, rough road handling, and ride all suffer. And since swaybars add spring rate, but just in roll, it's more difficult to tune the shocks for optimal performance.

Most people will say to tune the car with springs, and use swaybars sparingly as "seasoning." They're quick and easy to adjust for changing conditions. For a while, Racing Beat was tuning Mazdas with soft springs / tons of bar, and it was making it to production cars like the MP3 and Mazdaspeed Protege. I'm somewhere in between. I AX, so I like a lot of front bar for the lateral response, while running a slightly softer front spring for more forgiving braking bite. I keep going more spring in the rear, can't get enough. I've got a pretty big sway out back still, which can affect power down (a rear sway "lifts" the inside wheel) that I'll be experimenting with going smaller or maybe ditching the rear entirely.

Again, the only way to make real improvements is to get scientific. Really pay attention to what the car is doing in all phases of a corner: in transition, at entry, mid-corner, corner exit. Try different techniques to find out what is driver induced, many perceived handling issues are driver error. Take notes. Try things. Make large changes so you get a feel for what each adjustment does. Change tire pressures. Tweak alignment settings. Test, test, test. There's no shortcut, no easy button. You can't just ask on a forum what the "best" is. No car will ever be perfect. The only question is what level of "good enough" is good enough for your standards.

The good news is, all that playing around is a lot of fun, and it's one heck of a self-taught class. Good luck.