Leaderboard

Personally I think ARBs are just as useful to road racing as they are to autox. I know a lot of people like to argue that point but they are a tool help with setup. I can tell from my hillclimbing days that my car was easier/nicer to drive when using ARBs to balance the fast corners. You can spring the car stiff enough to not need them but if you don't have a really smooth course it will not put power down as well and the car will have a lot more of a snappy feel when loaded up and ride over bumps. In the end it's all down to how you like the car to feel and what makes you confident in how the car behaves. If you have no confidence and feel is crap it doesn't matter how fast XYZ driver is with a similar setup. What I learned about the splined bars is that you need to rate test them about 3 times before they will read the same. If a bar is used then it will probably do this. I bought some from Roush years ago that were supposed to be used and came in new packaging. You can rate test them on the car locking the other opposite side at level ride height and then handing weights from the spindle or weld a hook to an old steel wheel and bolt that on to simulate the best experience and then hang weights from a chain and use a laser level on the wall or piece of plywood or similar. Your just looking for what happens hole to hole. And you can run both sides in different holes to split the rate (most people forget this). The advantage to this method is you will know what the installed rate at the wheel is. That's what you need for all the spreadsheets that calculate wheel loads. You might as well make some droop limiters too while you are there. If you add a forward facing arm you can build a stop using a pivoting foot bolt (https://www.mcmaster.com/leveling-pads/). Or use the arm side and capture how far it can extend. Just make sure there's enough clearance for the wheel/tire combo. Hope that helps, Cary