24 replies to this topic

[mini-geek]

I have recently fitted A032Rs to the mini and now noticed that the body roll is getting to a point where it's limiting the car..

 

looking mini spares one http://minispares.co...px|Back to shop

 

is fitting just a rear one going to help? any opinion for and against them?

 

[nicklouse]

ok. what are you wanting to do?

 

what do you think an anti roll bar will do?

 

often they will not actually do what you want.

 

so what is happening now and what are you wanting to achieve?

[mini-geek]

As in title..

Reduce body roll in fast corners meaning the tyre keeps in a better angle in relation to the road

It rolls I want less

[nicklouse]

then you don't want anti roll bars.

 

a rear one will just promote over steer. and less grip.

 

a front ARB might be a better bet.

 

what is the rest of the suspension set up

 

list everything.

[mattmiglia]

Yeah be careful fitting a rear arb as they can cause more help than good

[mini-geek]

Ok looking like its best leaving it without..

[nicklouse]

again what are you wanting to do? and why.

 

if it is just body roll then give more info on set up and people can advise.

 

PS anti roll bars are incorrectly named really.

[Magneto]

I know that increasing the size of the rear sway bar on my 2009 MINI really helped put the power down on track, especially coming out of slow corners where it would just pick up the inside front tire and smoke it. But if you overdid the stiffness you could get the back end to come around on you.....

 

Of course new MINIs have a considerably more sophisticated suspension than our classics.....

[nicklouse]

Here is that metro again.

Note that on wet or damp the ARB is backed off or the rear would just break away.

What you think about is what is it doing. It is allowing the spring on the inside to add its spring rate to the outer wheel. So it is similar to running stiffer springs. How much of the spring rate that is transferred depends on the ARB diameter.
But this only really has any benifit if you have the mechanical grip. Note the black lines that the tyres are putting down.

The first thing you need to consider is increasing the grip your tyres can give with camber. Or you will just slide.

https://youtu.be/kJ0IY8yf0Z8

[Cooperman]

I was taught that with anti-roll bars, if you stiffen up one end of the car, you increase the road-holding at the other end. In other words a larger diameter rear anti-roll bar increases the road-holding at the front thus promoting over-steer. This can help in a pure racing scenario as it means that when you arrive at the end of a straight and you brake, there is less tendency for the car to want to go 'straight on' and it promotes the 'turn-in', That, in turn, means you need to get get back hard on the power in order to 'keep the front in front' and avoid spinning and, of course, you are then back on the power earlier in the corner which makes the exit speed higher and so the terminal speed down the next straight is higher giving a quicker lap speed.

Of course, on a public road this is the last thing you actually want because if a corner tightens and you have to lift off, with a rear ARB the car will most likely spin, rather than gently turn-in. This in turn can lead to loss of driving licence   .

[mini-geek]

Cheers great great advice as always

I don't really think I have issues with grip just physical body roll.. I can live with that.. I'm sure I'm the limiting factor on track anyway not the car..

[Cooperman]

For a strictly track car you can change to coil springs with an very high initial spring rate. That way there will be less body-roll as you enter and go through a corner. In fact, they can be high single-rate springs, unlike the true rising-rate springs of the rubber cone variety which are ideal for public road use.

But such a configuration will be far from ideal on the roads because tracks are ultimately smooth and roads are very bumpy. with a high rate coil spring to reduce body-roll on track, the car would 'patter' over bumps and be very poor through corners on the roads.

There are higher-rate rubber cone springs available from Mini Spares which give slightly reduced body roll, especially when the dampers are set quite hard (i.e. too high for the road).

[mini-geek]

I'm already on red dots.. Possibly the best improvement I've made

[Johnofox]

Just reading through this as I'm in a similar boat. Red dots fitted front and standard rear. I've got a quaife ATB diff fitted and they don't work as an LSD if you have zero grip on one wheel like a plate diff will. Unfortunately mine is lifting the inside front so it starts to feel almost like clutch slip. I was considering a rear ARB to try and pin the front down more, but one i disconnect easily on a wet day. Thoughts?

[Johnofox]

If this video works take a looks...

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