Lude Generation

As promised here's my little write up on fitting this bad boy.

The old ARB had seen much better days.



And the other side didn't look far off rusting through either.



So after much deliberation, I decided to buy an Ultra Racing UR-AR23-071.



The main reasons why I chose it over the other ARB's are:

• - It's thicker than most at 23mm, 1mm thicker than standard.
  
  - It's solid mild steel, making it much stronger than standard.
  
  - It ISN'T made of chromoly (which weakens after being stressed over and over, and is also weakened by welding, oh and can shear/shatter/is much more brittle than mild steel).
  
  - It comes with new poly mounts and metal fixings to match the thicker diameter which is nice.
  
  - It ISN'T the stiffest available, which I liked because it's for a road car, not a track car. Roads aren't flat - some give and flex is good.
  
  - I managed to get it cheaper than any of the others.
  
  - The paint finish was reviewed on a forum by somebody once somewhere once upon a time in comparison with White Line and Tanabe (I think), and they said it was better!

Fitting took most of a day because the nuts that connect the drop links to the ARB were rusted solid. I'd only replaced those with genuine parts about 18 months ago, so I wasn't very happy about that They were so bad I had to take the old bar off - drop links and all, and rotary wire brush the threads clean before the nuts would come off. After much soaking with penetrant spray, and loosening/tightening over and over they eventually undid, luckily without damage.

Anyway fitting was pretty easy after that. Had to drop the exhaust off its hangers for a bit of clearance but that's about it. Would have been much easier with 2 people as you need 3 hands.

So here's some eye candy. I sprayed under body wax on some of the parts so that's the black messy stuff.







It cost me £160, but I got lucky with the import tax etc. so it should have been more like £175.

I haven't had a chance to really try it out yet but the car feels much, much better - needless to say as it didn't have a functioning ARB before! So I can't compare it to stock unfortunately but so far I'm pretty sure the prelude has never handled better. I need to take it for some proper sideways action and will write back. But so far I can definitely feel the rear of the car strongly resisting body roll, which is helping to keep the fronts firmly planted on the floor.

PM me for details of the seller who is based in Malaysia. I can confirm they are completely genuine and happy to do the same deal for others.

The also sell this item in Netherlands for arround the same costs

aftermarket arb's definitly improve the feel and reduce bodyroll to almost nil

merc thats all good but you forgot one thing they look too

nice! mine looks pretty tatty also.... that looks all shiny and strong

Very nice

So I had a chance to go for a 'freaking insane' (bloody word replace! '$pirited') drive late last night. First real impressions were followed by some and then a bit of and finally

The car feels more balanced than it ever did on entry, apex and exit. Turn-in understeer was completely gone to the point where I was trying slow and fast turn-in methods to try and break the fronts out but they just would not let go (at road safe speeds). One other big improvement is the lack of wheel spin on exit. With the LSD doing what it should, I had to be careful not to put the power down too early or risk running wide. Whereas before the inside wheel would often be lifted at the apex of tight corners and would start to spin as I got back on the power towards the exit. I'm genuinely shocked at just how much difference it has made to the car, both as it was with a knackered ARB, and before then when it used to handle pretty damn well (or so I thought).

All I can say is I need to re-learn the car's limits on a track or skid pan as they're now far beyond what is safe for me to try on the road.

result
upgraded rear arbs are hard to come by and the likes of any whitelines are snapped up quickly so good to know theres a decent alternative out there.
good price considering it has new clamps and arb bushes.