BMW Rallying Forum

How does everyone feel about ARBs ?

I took mine off to get through the MOT (rusty mounts at the front, if there's no ARB fitted they're not suspension mounts any more...) and I'm wondering if I really need to get it sorted out or not.

My car is a "Sport" so came with the thicker ARBs as standard.

If you want you can replace just the anti roll bar mounting bracket

eBay item number:192520522002
eBay item number:173189581946

Might not handle quite right without it

Yep, already bought them, that wasn't the question !!

It is: Do I need ARB(s) on dirt/mud/gravel or is the extra compliance useful for traction ?

I've been running without so far. I was wondering what other people are doing.

I have been getting advice from guys over in Finland on how they set their E36 cars up for gravel. Also had advice from Marko at BIGem suspension which is what I have fitted to my E36 M3 coupe. Anti roll bars fitted front and rear for tarmac but removed for gravel. Did 2 events last year on gravel with arb's removed and was happy with handling. I will be removing the arb's again for next gravel event. Found adjusting the ride height front and rear made a big difference to the handling.

keithr wrote:Anti roll bars fitted front and rear for tarmac but removed for gravel.

That was my gut feeling - glad I'm not going mad !

keithr wrote:Found adjusting the ride height front and rear made a big difference to the handling.

In what way ? Can you give me some pointers ? I'm doing Targas (loose surface but not full-on gravel) (yet!) and Autosolos (generally fairly decent tarmac).

Just the balance of the car in corner during throttle lift and under braking. If rear too high then car goes light on back end too easy. Found for gravel (especially stages in Scotland that can be quite rough) it was better to raise front than lower rear. If rear is too high compared to front you can feel it wanting to come round if you lift off half way round corner. Its a case of getting the balance right for your personal preference of driving style. After raising the front my car still turned in with no issues but was more stable in the corners.

Very interesting - thank you.

There was a Mk2 Escort at the event last week and that looked very high at the front too. This must be a standard thing for loose surfaces I guess.

My gravel Compact runs no rear sway bar with the standard front sway bar.

I am going to try the thinner sedan front bar at some stage.

Sundayjumper wrote:Very interesting - thank you.

There was a Mk2 Escort at the event last week and that looked very high at the front too. This must be a standard thing for loose surfaces I guess.

It always puzzled me why the Escorts ran with front higher than rear but the BMW's sit with front lower. For Escorts maybe way of getting more squat and traction and making rear end more stable on corners with the solid axle set up. My M3 on gravel is still slightly lower at front than rear but sits more level than a std road car. Could it be that if BMW rear is too low it might have too much traction pushing car on into corners and understeer? I haven't tried it to find out.