the anti-roll thingy under the curved bit at the front

[Tom]

Yes, um, my car's at Hyperion having its wet-weather gear attached (those days of 70mph water droplets arrowing into my exposed face are over) and the chap there pointed out that Caterham put 18mm (or did I mishear?) anti-roll bars on their cars.

 

He said that the car only needed a 16mm bar because the thicker one can cause understeer when the car is pushed hard. Apparently the racing teams don't use anything more than 16mm.

 

Did I mishear or is this sound advice? Can anybody understand what I, in my complete ignorance, am blabbing on about?

 

 

[jonhill]

Tom,

 

You heard correctly, but it should be noted that with a 16mm front arb, race teams will fit stiffer springs than those fitted as standard. They will also fit stiffer rear springs too, which will affect the balance of the car.

 

If you change nothing else, then changing from an 18mm to a 16mm (5/8" really - don't know why some are metric and some imperial - anyone?) front arb will give more front end grip (i.e.less understeer), but at the expense of more body roll, and a slower responding front end.

 

See thread entitled "Wallowing" (last contributed to on 21 Sept.) for more waffle on this.

 

Cheers,

 

Jon

[ashaughnessy]

I think the real answer is that there is no right answer. The problem is far too complex to have an answer like "hyperion are right and caterham are wrong". The correct choice of roll bar will depend on all the other aspects of your car, springs, dampers, wheels, tyres, engine (weight, etc), etc....

I think the only way to get the correct setup is either make your car a clone of someone elses that handles well, or try lots of things and test each change. If it was simple, why do we still have arguments about it?

Anthony

[R2D2]

I agree with Anthony but if I were racing or sprinting I would fit an adjustable arb as the roll stiffness may need to be changed to suit wet or dry tracks, differing surfaces etc.

 

I am sure there must be an after-market kit which would make tinkering around easier and give us all something else to worry about.

[EFA]

Juno Sportscars do a front or rear adjustable ARB kit.

 

This is Gary Mays company - he is on 0780 1749054

 

Fat Arn

The NOW PROVEN R500 Eaterid=red>

See the Lotus Seven Club 4 Counties Area Website hereid=green>

 

[Tom]

when i picked up the car this morning the boys at Hyperion were celebrating the fact that they had won 3 of the races they were in at Brands Hatch at the weekend.

 

Apparently their cars were running without anti-roll-bars fitted at all!

 

More grip.

[Mike Bees]

Presumably it was wet...

 

Mike

[Drumster]

....yes, very wet. At one point it was touch and go whether or not the racing would continue.

 

Chris Alston

 

Se7ening - it's all miles and smile.gifsmile.gifsmile.gif

1800 Supersprint - Loud and Proud teeth.gif

[Shaun Soanes]

Hyperion have said the same to me when looking after my car. Furthermore they said the rear should be reduced or softned by the watts link. I am going to change the front and rear sometime.

 

Is your car used mainly on the road? I thought that I would check out some other members cars at our last meeting, I found that predominately the cars (particularly road going examples) had the stiffer bars whereas those used for some track use had the middle bar fitted.

 

Hope this helps

 

Shaun