ARB on drift s13

[Jaymo_sx]

just wondering....do people upgrade any of the ARB's for drift s13's?

Or just one?

Which one?

I currently have no ARB on the back of my s13 and wondering whether its worth getting a upgraded one?

[Jonny Wilkinson]

I can't give you any info for drifting but for a road car, the S13 comes with ARBs front and rear as standard and the rear ARB is particularly weedy.
Upgrading the rear ARB give a more neutral feel to the car but can make the shortcomings of the front ARB more apparent.
Upgrading front and rear to a matching pair e.g. Whitelines will help roadholding and handling tremendously unless the struts have been replaced with hard sprung coilovers (e.g. 8/6 or 10/8).

There is a school of thought (which I don't subscribe too TBH) that says fitting stiffer springs and removing the ARBs altogether gives a better handling car. It might be true for the track or for a drift car, I don't know as my car is a road car.

[Fake Ben Taylor]

lowering our cars a lot throws all the geometry out and knackers the roll centres. this causes a rear wheel to jack up in corners due to the roll of the car. stiffer prings/arbs cant cure this and the lower you go the worse it is.

removing the rear arb isnt a fix but helps keep two rear wheels on the floor so improving grip. the proper way to do it is make everything adjustable and fix the geometry.

fwiw mine had no front or rear arb at TOTB and fmg said the car was really really well balanced and handled 'unfeasably well'

edit: im not sure how this would translate to drifting though

[Zornyan]

Yeah but a decent cage would remove the need to remove arbs, like my friends ps13 that just had a customs cage fitted, lifting a wheel would lift half the car in the air! The reason only one wheel will lift is due to the chassis flex.

Dont forget even standard hot hatches can lift a rear wheel cornering hard, mostly down to soft chassis flexing when pushing on hard. Hell I know my friends type r could and did several times, and that was standard suspension wise

[Zornyan]

Back on topic, for drifting you want a nice stiff rear arb, such as a gtr one like mine, nice and chunky hell of alot more manly than oem, so the rear breaks traction nice and smoothly, for the front oem or a slightly larger one, personally oem with polybushes would be fine, just so the front has a bit more slack.

I find this lets the back end come out smoothly, whilst maintaining good front end grip, especially as most drift days have poor surfaces and require some compliance in the suspension.

[Fake Ben Taylor]

Yeah but a decent cage would remove the need to remove arbs, like my friends ps13 that just had a customs cage fitted, lifting a wheel would lift half the car in the air! The reason only one wheel will lift is due to the chassis flex.

Dont forget even standard hot hatches can lift a rear wheel cornering hard, mostly down to soft chassis flexing when pushing on hard. Hell I know my friends type r could and did several times, and that was standard suspension wise

nope its not chassis flex

is the geometry causing it to roll on the suspension a stiff shell probably makes it worse imagine you were strong enough to compress the front left suspension right down, the opposite corner would lift up more suspension travel makes it worse and having the roll centres all to pot causes the car to roll regardless.

touring cars have a lot of caging and chassis rigidity and they pick up a wheel on a ff car it can help with front end grip. in an fr car it reduces rear grip which is baaaad

[Zornyan]

Not saying roll centre isnt hugely important, it is. But I said, to lift a wheel on my friends recently caged car the whole thing psychially moves as one, the entire side of the car would have to lift up.

[Fake Ben Taylor]

or just one corner......i really dont know how to explain it.

push one corner of a car down, the opposite lifts up. in a stiff shell this effect is made worse because there is no give. the whole shell pivots on two wheels on opposite corners. the whole side of the car wouldnt lift at all.

if this is happening and you fit a thick arb at the back you make the problem worse as the arb is helping the rear wheel unload. so if you want grip at the back either remove an arb or fix the geometry so the car isnt trying to roll over like a hibernating bear

[cleanhands]

Something about droop travel of the inside wheel.

Jaymo, give it a try without first, then fit it, or vice versa, only really you can decide which is best. Theory says thicker rear, could just remove front and fit rear, will have similar effect.

[Fake Ben Taylor]

i think i have the rear in the garage still jaymo - can have a look tomorrow if you like

[Jaymo_sx]

Yeah please buddy


Zornyan you say a Gtr one? What Gtr?
R32?

[Zornyan]

Yes mate, r32 gtr, hell of alot thicker than oem one, get some poly mounts n links at the same time