Best Anti Roll Bar kit?

[pat15312]

Who knew this would be such a hard decision to make!!!
Can you please give me a bit of feedback on 6 of the anti roll bar kits on the market from the top brands.
Basically I nee you give me some sort of clue in order for me to make an informed decision isntead of jsut guessing.
I'm not going to take into account the difference in price in order to make things a bit simpler.
I want the kit that will offer the largest improvement in handling without making the car horrible to drive around town or over bad roads...
At the moment I'm leaning towards the thickest H&R due to reccomendation by Ed at APS.
Cheers,
Patrick

[vRS Carl]

I voted Eibach purely because thats what i have.

[stealthwolf]

Unless someone has fitted each type to their car and driven around the same circuit to test each one out, you are never gonna get an accurate answer.

[RedRobin]

Unless someone has fitted each type to their car and driven around the same circuit to test each one out, you are never gonna get an accurate answer.

.... x 2

Also, different sizes/settings front and back will suit different drivers. Some prefer a looser rear end for example.

I think it's a case of establishing which brands to avoid, if any. IIRC there have been reported problems with hollow ARB's.

Over 70k miles on my Eibach's and even though I had the opportunity to swop to VWR, they advised it would be an uneccessary added expense.

[Janner_Sy]

they are all different and it depends on what your after.  also just because a bar is thicker, its not necessarily stiffer, they might be a solid or hollow bar or different material etc.

a point of note for bars though.

the thicker the front bar the more understeer.
The thicker the rear bar the less understeer thus closer to oversteer.

what ever you go for id say choose an adjustable kit, because if you dont like the balance you can adjust it very easily to make itmore neutral or more aggressive.  

On my vRS i had the eibach front and rears, they worked best set on front -soft, and rear -stiff.  i was however considering fitting a stiffer rear bar though as i prefer the back to be that tad looser to get the nose into a corner, understeer is for gays .

i havent voted on the choices you have as id go for the whiteline 24mm adjustable front and rear bars.  you can see they test their kit on cars before releasing. i get the idea alot of other companies get the std ARBs and merely make them stiffer. and the bars are matched closer together. its the rear bar which is the main issue on these cars.  


however from the list i'd be goinf for the autotech 25mms, or neuspeed 25mms as long as they are adjustable

[danishmkvgti]

I chose the Autotech rear sway bar after looking what was out there. I narrowed my choices down to HR (as they don't need lubrication from time to time), BSH ( Biggest hardon on the market, but have had trouble with clearance of the lower control arms) and Autotech (IMO the best hollow design out there) Autotech it became based on stiffness and lightness and i chose only to change the rear as mentioned before that is the weak point on this specific car.

 

[jabbalad]

i would go for the new Eibach hollow arbs, there light and still adjustable too!

Its worth mentioning its not just a case of smaller bar on the front, and bigger bar on the rear will give you more oversteer or vise versa, its all down to the roll characteristics of the car!

For example a front engined front wheel drive car will need more roll stiffness on the front than the rear due to the weight over the front axel....
its all about getting a balance that works for the car and you, you will find the ones that are matched front and rear will be really snatchy and not very positive to drive fast as they wont give much feel to how there putting the car into slides 

To be honest you will feel a differnce in whatever brand you go for, so its just down to your budget and what ones you can get hold of easy enough 

[KleinAberFein]

I am also wondering of the, I think it is called "camber curve" of this car? Is it losing much negative camber under compression in a turn? We cannot adjust the front camber on our cars, no? Other than putting on the TT arms, etc.?

If this car is losing camber in a turn, a bigger front ARB will keep the car flatter (less rolling) giving more grip in the front because of the less camber loss. But it will feel as if it does not want to rotate. I think then you can use the bigger rear bar for the "tuning" of this rotation, no?

What do you fellows think?

[Janner_Sy]

A bigger front bar will give the car more understeer, bigger rear will reduce understeer.  simple as that.
id reccommend both bars.  front set to soft, rear to stiff

[GLIDN]

I cannot offer advice on your choices sorry, but I might throw a spanner in the works.
All these brands are hard to get in little old New Zealand.

I ended up with a 26mm APR rear anti roll bar. I found a vast improvement in the handling around corners.
I currently have it set to the softest setting (being adjustable). I'm not too sure I'll end up doing the front.

It feels like it does not want to understeer at all anymore, pretty much where I point my cars nose the rear just follows.
More like an evenish feel. Not just yet tail happy.

Sorry to comment a different brand to your choice. But thought I would at least let you know.
The rear does feel stiffer driving normally, the rear is a tax more bouncy too with no people in the back.
But yes still have to keep lubing the bush every couple of months.

[gillm]

i fitted a neuspeed hollow rear bar to mine and made a nice difference , i have always had neuspeed bars and always will , top notch !

[RedRobin]

A bigger front bar will give the car more understeer, bigger rear will reduce understeer.  simple as that.
id reccommend both bars.  front set to soft, rear to stiff

.... x 2

But as to which brand of ARB is the best, I don't think you can know without experiencing them all.

[Janner_Sy]

no one will ever know that id bet.  the only way to test would be to use the same car with each ARB, and have the alignment set to the same settings everytime etc etc.  lets be fair, that aint going to happen.  all the bars are very good.  all are much of a muchness tbh

[Teutonic_Tamer]

Unless someone has fitted each type to their car and driven around the same circuit to test each one out, you are never gonna get an accurate answer.

.... x 2

Also, different sizes/settings front and back will suit different drivers. Some prefer a looser rear end for example.

I wish I had a looser rear end!

I think it's a case of establishing which brands to avoid, if any.

Agreed.

[Teutonic_Tamer]

I too have the adjustable Whiteline anti-roll bars - front soft, rear hard.  I'd happily recommend them.

And to the Kiwi who said they have difficulty getting stuff - Whiteline are made in Australia, so fairly local!