roll bar or not on a xe nova

[graham kirkbride]

is it worth putting a anti roll bar off a nova gte/gsi on my 2.0ltr 16v nova yes or no if yes what are the advantages any info will be appreciated i no you have to put spacers on to clear the manifold on the xe lump:cool:

[Adam]

Rear yes.
Front no.

[graham kirkbride]

thanks for the info mate appreciated

[Tim]

why not on the front ??

[Stuart]

a little roll on the front of a nova is "good"
esp when you have aftermarket suspension.


Try the front arb if you like, but id say you wont like it as its a bit skittish

[Lee]

Mines in the bin, sticking out of the lid.

Good riddance.

[dannyb]

Normal GSi/GTE/SRi/Sr et al. front ARB wont clear the sump on a C20XE conversion, you can get adapters to lower it tho, try chrisastleymotorsport.co.uk or ebay. I dont know whether ppl take ARB off just cos they dont fit on a C20XE conv or cos it is actually a disadvantage to handling tho.

[dan16v]

send it binward!

[jamie gsi16v]

i have found NOT having one is better in a few ways, in the wet you can corner better due to alot less stiffness and differant roll from drivers to passengers wheels. when driving hard on a private road if you hit a pot hole or bump in the road whilst going round the corner ul find that one wheel will lift and one will stay on the floor giving you traction instead of both lifting and chucking you towards the verge. less weight, less money to put summet on that has loads of disadvantages.

fit poly bushes, and good suspension and you will be fine. j

[doug_sri]

I have a 1989 1.4 sr nova which had a xe engine in it when i bought it, should it have a rear arb as standard? cant remember seeing one but then i aint 100% what it looks like

[Dan]

I dont know whether ppl take ARB off just cos they dont fit on a C20XE conv or cos it is actually a disadvantage to handling tho.

You'll find its a universal agreement that arb's are detrimental to the handling at a certain point. Its not just an xe thing lol

[dannyb]

Rear ARB Doug is up underneath the back axle, it will have a triangular bush in the centre. You can see just ahead and behind the wheels if there are the bolts holding one in. Hard to explain tho!!

[Aamir]

Also depends on how much the car is lowered by. Lower than 50mm with an XE & roll bar fitted will make the handling very skittish.

So remove it if lower than 50-60mm

[novatek]

iv never tried mine off, im down 60mm so il try it at the weekend, let you know how it goes

[Dar]

I ran a Front ARB on mine when I was using the bilstein sprintline kit and the car handled very well. It leaned loads though. Im sure if I didn't have the ATB fitted it would have been awful.

However once I got coilovers the front ARB becomes a hinderance because the suspension was alot stiffer and the car didn't lean any where near as much. So it could be removed to let the suspension work.

My advice when it comes to the front ARB is if you have stiff uprated suspension, then you can try running the car without the Front ARB and see how it feels - If you like it then keep it off. However if you don't have firm suspension then I wouldn't bother taking it off. Again you can try but I wouldn't reccomend it.

ARB's are fitted to cars so that they can run softer suspension and therefore give a better comfy ride but still keep the car fairly level in the bends (making it handle better). Without the better suspension your just going to make the car handle worse when the ARB is removed.