rear anti-roll-bar

[Marius]

I´d like to fit a rear anti-roll-bar to my DeDion-7, build in 97, HPC on 13"split-rims. As far as I know the chassis needs to be modified, does anyone know exactly ? Welding neccessary ? Or does it make sense to change the rear end directly into the newest specification (as on Superlight R & R500), different linkages these are.

Anyone any recommendations for that and a price suggestion ?

 

Thanks, Marius

[Rob Walker]

No need to mod your chassis. The rear ARB fits without any mods. If you want to fit the latest spec Watts Linkage, your lower chassis rails will need drilling and sleeveing. Also the rear brackets to hang the rear link of the Watts linkage are not fitted to the 97 chassis. This means the rear skin of the car has to be removed in order to weld on the brackets, a big job ! cost is about £1000 . Reports from the race teams have not been complementory on the Watts linkage. However I can recomend the rear ARB.

[Rob Morris]

Fitted the rear anti-roll bar to my 97 Vauxhall at same time as upgrade of front unit major improvement all round, however, front should not be done without rear (try it and see the difference as the front wants to handle whilst the rear insisits on wallowing around!

 

To fit the bar you will have to drill off the rivett heads securing the two small triangular aluminum panels under neath the rear wings (5 min job). The rear bar can be fitted without the removal of the rear dampers (just two man job with lots of pratting about), which saves you having to disturb the interior.

 

Have fun and enjoy the results.

[Chelspeed]

Sort of right....

 

If you have the SLR or SLR500 split rims which are almost 9 inch wide then you can't use the rear facing above the diff anti roll bar as the links foul the inner rims of the wheel.

 

If that's the case then you can either use the SLR anti roll bar which is rear facing below the diff and requires sleeves to be brazed into the chassis rails (looks an easy mod to me). Or you can get a forward facing low level arb like mine which attaches to existing plates below the tank (I think they're for mounting the silencer on back exit exhausts), mine came from Juno Sportscars and is adjustable like their front ones, it cost me 130ukp, very neat and clever bit of kit.

 

I believe the Watts linkage is only disliked by the race teams because they spend a lot of races going off backwards or getting nudged up the a**e by other cars which destroys the geometry. If you don't do this then the watts linkage is clearly better from a geometry basis so I would think it's a good move.

 

The mounting points for the forward facing arms look extremely easy to fit and I can't believe even Arch would remove the rear panels to fit them. I'm going to have a go at fitting them myself in a month or so and will certainly not be taking panels off! If the fuel tank's out (2 pipes, 2 bolts) then there is loads of access to the area.

[Rob Morris]

Trust me don't waste the time of taking the floor out as its no use. The two triangular panels MUST be removed if you are going to fit the bar correctly. Reason for this is that the "U" Bolts drop down from inside becoming captive.

 

Have fun!

[Marius]

Thanks guys, you´re of great help to me. Removing the panels would not be problem, did this already once for taking out the standard belts. I also saw different kinds of ARB´s so the use of different rims could really be the reason for that. I first thought about "just" giving Dartford a call but it wouldn´t have been the first time that they send me the wrong items even if clearly specified. I think I´ll let Hyperion do the work for me when they´re at the Ring with Wheeltorque again. No professionals over there in Germany :-(

The Watts-link would exceed my driving-abilities I think, so ARB should do for the first time.

 

Cheers, Marius

 

P.S.: I simply love this blat-chat. Question in the morning, 20 helpfull answers in the evening. Fantastic !