Stiffer anti-roll bar

[paddyglenny]

:roll: Hi there everybody, I'm a new member and I live near Perugia in central Italy. I drive a 1989 R4 TL with which I'm very happy mainly because of her astonishingly low fuel consumption and cheerful character (I recently drove all the way down through Italy, crossed over to Sicily, all around Sicily then back home. Average fuel consumption was 52 mpg!).
Anyway, the two things that bug me are:
The anti-roll bar is about as thick as a pencil, and consequently as I'm sure you're all aware, she rolls alot going round corners. Did any aftermarket manufacturer make a stiffer version, and if so what are the chances of still finding one?
Secondly, she has the worst traction of any FWD car I've ever driven! If the road is damp and I'm driving up the steep windy road to my farm, I can make one of the front wheels spin easily, even with the modest torque available. Apart from fitting chunky tyres and maybe hanging some concrete blocks off the front bumper, are there any mods to improve traction???
BTW, for some reason, my car was made in Yugoslavia!
Cheers
Paddy Glenny

 

[entwistlecymru]

Welcome Paddy! The roll bar of choice would probably be a R4 F6 roll bar, but they aren't very easy to get hold of! A rear roll bar would probably help things - also off an F6 and even less common than the front. I'm sure someone else will confirm this - there are various R4 specs to cope with rough terrain, which were built with thicker torsion and roll bars. May be worth looking over the Med into North Africa or Spain?

 

[paddyglenny]

Great idea, thanks!
I don't remember when they stopped selling R4's in the UK, but they did so here 'til '89, so you still see quite a few trundling around the rural areas here. In fact I have a buddy here with an F6 van, so I'll ask him if knows of a doner van lying around somewhere from which I could nick both anti-roll bars.
A cool feature of life here is that cars don't rust, so there's still plenty of interesting classic cars around- my R4 is 19 years old and my Fiat 128 35 years old, and there's not a single speck of rust on either! Believe me- that changes old car ownership dramatically for the better!
Cheers
Paddy

 

[angel]

The fact is that any R4 rolls!
Your car is fitted with a 12mm front anti-roll bar. "Poor road" and "special" suspensions had 16mm anti-roll bar, this certainly helps. As far as I know, there was no aftermarket anti-roll bar for the R4.
Rear anti-roll bar was also standard on poor road and special suspension setup. But I oubt about its use, since it only connects the two arms, no mountings on the chassis.
If you want to go further, you can fit van torsion bars, these are stiffer (will firm up the ride noticeably). A little difference can also be felt with gas shock absorbers (e.g. DeCarbon).

Now about the traction...I have never heard of an overpowered R4, all complains are for lack of power!! :-) :-) Are your tyres in good condition? what pressures do you run? I have found that 22-24 lbs works fine, no more.

A friend of mine had a 1975 128, also with absolutely no rust! (and they are notorious for rusting EVERYWHERE!)

 

[malcolm]

I have trouble with traction too. The car lifts one of the front wheels (can't remember which but guessing LH) and spins the power away. The problem gets worse if the car leans to one side (rusty rear suspension mountings or saggy torsion bars).

Anti roll bars shouldn't need a connection to the chassis (they only need to twist). I find the rough road versions a little unpleasant - the stiffer anti-roll bars aren't to my taste as while they roll less the ride becomes less pleasant. I like an 850 with soggy dampers - lovely ride.

Though the 950 and 1100 seem to mess up the ride a little so you may as well go for thicker anti-roll bars and turn the car into a performance machine:roll:. Go for front and rear off the same rough road car - would make the car understseer if you just stiffened up the front.

My plan for ultimate handling (gordini engine) is to go to Spanish rough road torsion bars and front and rear anti-roll bars, and fit the best dampers I can find (though the choice in decent dampers seems limited so that will probably be the deCarbons).

Dampers are very important - it's the roll rate that you feel not the roll angle.

 

[angel]

I agree with your taste for a "soft" R4, Malcolm. After "growing up" in my poor road R4, riding a "100" series was quite an experience...