Any experience of H&R ARB or alternatives?

[OSV 0]

Considering some work on my car soon and amongst other things i'm tempted by ARB. I believe the car responds well to a rear bar but as the fronts are often only slightly larger diametre than stock, a small upgrade and make little difference? Has anyone experience of H&R ARBs they come in black which is disirable for me but both bars are 25mm ( many are 22mm) Any experience or observations are welcome especially about the relative effects of fitting just rear or both. Thankyou

[junkie 0]

You need to keep the size difference between the front and rear, i have a 22mm front Neuspeed on the G60 and 25mm rear Neuspeed, def an improvement doing the front too on a G60.

 

The Neuspeed are also black and rose jointed.

[herisites 0]

I would just go with the rear on the VR as the stock front ARB is already quite chunky, putting a bigger front on will encourage more understeer. I recently fitted a rear Neuspeed ARB on mine and found it sharpened the steering quite well, turn in was much sharper and it corners flatter (doesn't feel like it's dragging it's arse round the bend!). Worth the money imo.

 

If you want to improve the drivability of your car then I would also recommend the MED adjustable top mounts, they are the best thing I have put on my car! They give the suspension a bit more caster making the car more stable in a straight line so motorway driving is great. They also help with bump steer, sharpens up your breaks quite well etc just a general improvement to the way the car drives I found. Only problems with them though are they are quite expensive, a bit of a pain to fit, give a little bit more road noise (solid metal mounts rather than soft rubber ones!) and the bearings don't last too long in them!

[VRTrickster 0]

I would just go with the rear on the VR as the stock front ARB is already quite chunky, putting a bigger front on will encourage more understeer. I recently fitted a rear Neuspeed ARB on mine and found it sharpened the steering quite well, turn in was much sharper and it corners flatter (doesn't feel like it's dragging it's arse round the bend!). Worth the money imo.

 

If you want to improve the drivability of your car then I would also recommend the MED adjustable top mounts, they are the best thing I have put on my car! They give the suspension a bit more caster making the car more stable in a straight line so motorway driving is great. They also help with bump steer, sharpens up your breaks quite well etc just a general improvement to the way the car drives I found. Only problems with them though are they are quite expensive, a bit of a pain to fit, give a little bit more road noise (solid metal mounts rather than soft rubber ones!) and the bearings don't last too long in them!

 

What is involved fitting these MEDs? Im also thinking about ARBs aswell, and whether or not just to get a rear or not?

[herisites 0]

What is involved fitting these MEDs? Im also thinking about ARBs aswell, and whether or not just to get a rear or not?

 

The theory of fitting them isn't too bad, drop the front suspension, put the MED's at the top of the strut housing, drill couple of holes in the top and bolt them in. But you have to clean away the area underneath from underseal and as you do so you will slowly reveal a perfect recess for them to sit in, it's this that is the ball ache, takes aaaages to scrape away the underseal enough to get the MED's to sit in. My recess also wasn't perfectly round so they wouldn't go in so we had to faff about grinding the MED's down to slightly oval to get them to fit. Once you get them in though it's just a case of bolting them in (to pre-drilled holes which you'll need to mark up correctly) and then put the suspension back on. Obviously all your tracking will be out, but we marked it all up before we took it apart with the help of a little laser pen and some tipex :lol: we got it almost cock on as drove fine!

 

IMO they make a massive difference to how the car drives, I loved my first drive with them on, the car felt so much more positive to drive. Only problem is you have to be prepared to replace the bearings every few thousand miles!

[VRTrickster 0]

They sound quite interesting mate, Ill have to have a look at them! Can you not compensate the understeer with a front ARB with loosening the front shocks up a bit?

[Joe M 0]

Get both arb's or its just pointless. Having the rear only is pretty pointless, it makes the car feel a bit different to drive but its not any faster, but then fit the front and a bit of understeer will be introduced. This is the point you can stiffen the rear dampers up a bit and find the car is perfectly balance and can corner MUCH faster than it did previously.

[Kevin Bacon 5]

Get both arb's or its just pointless.

 

In your opinion.

 

In my opinion, that is complete bollocks.

[Joe M 0]

Corrados roll, its a fact. The engine is very heavy, pretty high up and well forwards. Going into a corner this all pushes onto the outside front wheel. A front arb will help big time with this though it wont eliminate it.

Adding the rear arb alone just allowes the opposite corner to get airborne earlier. As I said, it will make the car drive differently, maybe it will feel better but thats down to personal opinion.

Both arb's, the car can corner faster and flatter FACT.

I dont deny there are downsides to the front arb though, such as on uneven road surfaces where it may pull about a bit more etc and it can be twitchier in the wet.

[Kevin Bacon 5]

Both arb's, the car can corner faster and flatter FACT.

 

I know you're speaking mainly from a track perspective but tracks aren't public roads. F & R arbs do work better more of the time on tracks, I agree.

 

I dont deny there are downsides to the front arb though, such as on uneven road surfaces where it may pull about a bit more etc and it can be twitchier in the wet.

 

Exactly, which on a fast B road can make the car slower.

 

Speaking solely as a public road user, I've played around with loads of suspension and ARB combinations on the Corrado - you know that - and it is no faster with the front Eibach on at all. In many cases it's slower on the roads I use regularly and it does defintely induce more understeer, especially in the wet.

 

With the Eibach rear and stock front I can drive consistently quickly on more roads all year round. This is why you can buy ARBs individually now, so that the car can be setup for it's intended purpose. If I was to track mine, then I would be doubling the spring rates and digging the MEDs out again, but for a road car, the front ARB is, imo, more of a hinderence unless the roads are absolutely flat.

[Joe M 0]

I suppose the wheels could make the difference thats causing us to disagree over this, I found it perfect on country roads with the eibach arb's, koni coilovers, powerflex bushes but I was running standard speedlines, so the give in the tyres could be what made this setup.

I notice your running bigger wheels now so the above set up probably wouldnt work the same.