Rear ARB -do I really need one?

Has anyone contemplated removing there rear ARB and drop links , they squeak and knock and go rusty and can be a pain to replace bushes.

My TVR friends , they have old cars like us, say that a lot are removed and the car is better for it -much better ride quality.

The stiffness induced in the rear by having one is good for track days and smother fast road surfaces but has any one seen a decent road surface for quick driving other than a track?

comments please?

thanks
Mike

An interesting question. F or TF? The Hydragas system is quite clever regarding how it reacts in roll. The ARB is correspondingly thinner than that on sprung cars iirc but that suggests that it is necessary. The F was built down to a weight target, hence the plastic throttle body. If the ARB could have been ditched, I am sure it would have been. I would be more worried about the implications for insurance. I doubt if your insurer would wear it. ( It is different for TVRs: you could claim that it just fell off!)

Hi minimax and thanks for being the first person to put in a viewpoint.
I have a TF135 -standard size rear ARB , I have pondered this point for some time but only thought about it seriously recently.
my pros and cons are..
better feel when driving over rough ground
less skipping from rear when on rough ground.
probably less squeaks when moving slowly over uneven ground
reduced bush count and less metal to rust.

your point about insurance is very valid
maybe less positivity from the rear in wet conditions ( although I don't know why there should be)

finally, the ARB is there to act as a self levelling device -a must for all cars in the front ,but do we need self levelling in the rear of a TF

by the way you are probably correct in your assumption of a TVR!

regards and thanks
Mike

Well, more a matter of roll stiffness correction than self levelling and dealing with a sprung system, the removal of the rear ARB is going to reduce it. More overall roll will reduce the load on the front when cornering and with it, grip. Doing the same at the back would potentially reduce both grip and traction for the same reason which is why racing cars use thicker bars. Not sure I can see a tangible advantage over changing the bushes every ten years. Drop links rattle when they are loose. They are easy to change and not expensive. ARBs are not always necessary at the front, lots of cars don't have them but when a chassis has been tuned for handling by smarter people than me, I reckon to mess with it at my peril.

The damned bean counters would have been more than happy to save a few shekels by deleting the rear ARB if they thought they could get away with it........evidently the engineers made a convincing case for it's fitment!