Ultra Racing Strut Bar

[DJKOR]

... front strut

Front strut? Hopefully you're not confusing what I said about a front sway bar with a front strut brace. The sway bar is made to reduce body roll by applying force to the suspension on the opposite side of the car whereas the front strut brace is made to reduce chassis flex and actually doesn't really do anything to body roll.

[benji4138]

Ah yep, I did confuse it

Well that makes a lot more sense, thanks for unconfusing my mind :) (It had been doing backflips)

[Dauphin3]

So apart from the obvious gains in cornering and handling....how has it affected the day to day ride/feel of the car? Do you notice bumps alot more? Have to take it a bit slower over speed humps etc etc?

Front and rear struts will probably be the first mod to my Aurion when it arrives, but as it will be my day to day car I was just interested in the general effects.

[benji4138]

So apart from the obvious gains in cornering and handling....how has it affected the day to day ride/feel of the car? Do you notice bumps alot more? Have to take it a bit slower over speed humps etc etc?

Front and rear struts will probably be the first mod to my Aurion when it arrives, but as it will be my day to day car I was just interested in the general effects.

Actually tbh I haven't noticed any change in how comfortable the ride is. I'm always slowing down for speed humps and rail crossings now but that's because I don't want to damage the mags. For a daily ride I'd look at the 19mm bars as this would sharpen the car up with no real danger of oversteering.

I'm still very pleased with the ride of the car, would be the most comfort I've experienced in a car, which also has some quick pace as demonstrated in quarter mile runs, decent handling and good on fuel. I'm happy with this combination :D

Looks like your in Melbourne, so next meet or next time I'm in Melbourne I'd be more than happy to take you for a drive to feel the comfort :D

[Silver-Aurion]

Do you think you will feel any difference at all with the 19mm and 23mm rear sway?

[benji4138]

Do you think you will feel any difference at all with the 19mm and 23mm rear sway?

As in comfort wise? I don't think so. Seems to be still rather comfortable to drive.

Handling wise, there is a huge difference as I found out this past weekend when I tracked my car at Winton. Just feels so much tighter in the rear end. Had Dale (Zeinheiger) ride shotgun for one session and he even commented that you could feel the RSB working well. To kill the body roll at track speeds though I concluded I needed a set of coilies and for grip some nice wide slicks ;)

Did a small write up of my experience in my ride thread if your interested. Can't remember if there's much about the bars though...

[blakepure86]

Quick question: I already have bc coilovers and front strut bar and the handling is awesome with no body roll.

Just curious should I still upgrade sway and would I feel improvement?

Cheers for your help in advance :)

[benji4138]

Quick question: I already have bc coilovers and front strut bar and the handling is awesome with no body roll.

Just curious should I still upgrade sway and would I feel improvement?

Cheers for your help in advance :)

Hmmm.....not having coilovers myself I can only speculate....I'm thinking with a hard setting on the coilies there probably wouldn't be too much difference but all the same I think there would still be some difference. Whether or not it's enough of a difference to justify spending the money is the question though. If you were ever tracking then definitely but otherwise you could probably get away without a thicker rear sway. It's not like the Aurion doesn't have one anyway, but I guess if the rear feels a bit soft in the horizontal axis then it could be good to add a thicker rear sway.....Can always let you know how I go after I get coilies....may be some time though.....:)

[Adamsy]

Hey, i have coilovers and both the UR front tower brace and 19mm rear anti-roll bar. And it's a great all around package, once you have got the settings sorted out its great and the bigger bar allows you to dial the dampers back a bit for comfort without having the boat like body roll of the Presara and of course make the whole thing a shed load flatter when you tighten the collies up and get serious :)

Where you your spring coming into play can make a difference to all this too though.

[Silver-Aurion]

Do you think you will feel any difference at all with the 19mm and 23mm rear sway?

As in comfort wise? I don't think so. Seems to be still rather comfortable to drive.

Handling wise, there is a huge difference as I found out this past weekend when I tracked my car at Winton. Just feels so much tighter in the rear end. Had Dale (Zeinheiger) ride shotgun for one session and he even commented that you could feel the RSB working well. To kill the body roll at track speeds though I concluded I needed a set of coilies and for grip some nice wide slicks ;)

Did a small write up of my experience in my ride thread if your interested. Can't remember if there's much about the bars though...

Alright cheers mate :)

[blakepure86]

Hey, i have coilovers and both the UR front tower brace and 19mm rear anti-roll bar. And it's a great all around package, once you have got the settings sorted out its great and the bigger bar allows you to dial the dampers back a bit for comfort without having the boat like body roll of the Presara and of course make the whole thing a shed load flatter when you tighten the collies up and get serious :)

Where you your spring coming into play can make a difference to all this too though.

Thanks for your advice, I will upgrade the sway so I can fiddle with the settings a bit more..

Thanks again

[Adamsy]

Hey, i have coilovers and both the UR front tower brace and 19mm rear anti-roll bar. And it's a great all around package, once you have got the settings sorted out its great and the bigger bar allows you to dial the dampers back a bit for comfort without having the boat like body roll of the Presara and of course make the whole thing a shed load flatter when you tighten the collies up and get serious :)

Where you your spring coming into play can make a difference to all this too though.

Thanks for your advice, I will upgrade the sway so I can fiddle with the settings a bit more..

Thanks again

Yeah go for it, you won't be disappointed. And really compared to the prices of some of the mods you've done the rear antiroll bar is a pretty cheap mod that has real world benefits so i would defiantly recommend it :)

[N3ptuNe]

Correct me if I'm wrong I'm probably wrong lol

Wouldn't stiffening the front end on a FWD make it overseer more??? don't the struts have to be on the rear end to correct overseer?

Just a thought I had after a hard days work, zzzz.

[benji4138]

Correct me if I'm wrong I'm probably wrong lol

Wouldn't stiffening the front end on a FWD make it overseer more??? don't the struts have to be on the rear end to correct overseer?

Just a thought I had after a hard days work, zzzz.

Stiffening the back as in beefing up the rear sway bar will increase oversteering characteristics....the front strut helps to increase the understeering. So if you were to setup an FWD car for a race track (keeping in mind an FWD is naturally going to understeer) then you need a thicker rear bar than the front to even out the under/oversteering...after having the front strut installed first then the rear sway I can say that the rear sway has a lot more effect on being able to corner efficiently as it helps the rear follow through...the front strut helps to point the car where you want it to go.... Umm, I find it hard to explain, easier to feel the results whilst driving

[N3ptuNe]

I understand mate :)

I was planing on getting the struts from Whiteline however Ultra seem pretty cheap. Don't know how they compare to Whiteline racing struts besides $$

[DJKOR]

....the front strut helps to increase the understeering.

Correction.... the front sway bar does that as a trade-off of reducing body roll. You are confusing the two again.

[Adamsy]

yeah guys dont confuse the two lol.

if you was to put a larger front ANTI-ROLL bar in Aurion you would make it Understeer more which is bad.

By sticking a larger rear ANTI-ROLL bar in Aurion you make it understeer less as it makes the rear of the car follow the front and it will turn better in the rear of the car.

Stick a much larger rear ANTI-ROLLin the Aurion and you will actually make it over steer.

The front strut tower brace just stiffens the front of the chassis up and stops the front towers from moving around under cornering stresses which makes the car "pointier" at the corner and reduce axle tramp.

[DJKOR]

yeah guys dont confuse the two lol.

if you was to put a larger front ANTI-ROLL bar in Aurion you would make it Understeer more which is bad.

By sticking a larger rear ANTI-ROLL bar in Aurion you make it understeer less as it makes the rear of the car follow the front and it will turn better in the rear of the car.

Stick a much larger rear ANTI-ROLLin the Aurion and you will actually make it over steer.

The front strut tower brace just stiffens the front of the chassis up and stops the front towers from moving around under cornering stresses which makes the car "pointier" at the corner and reduce axle tramp.

I was trying to avoid the anti-roll bar due to the Ultra Racing terminology, but yes, that is the ideal way to explain it. Not that I have an issue with it, but it's better when everyone is on the same page.

That said, putting in a 23mm rear anti-roll bar in combination with a front anti-roll bar that is upgraded by a few mm would be a nice combination which would be equivalent in balance to a 19mm rear with stock front, but with more anit-roll capability all round. But upgrading the front is probably never going to happen.

For clarification on how the bars work, I will quote myself from page 4:

so if it increases handling therefore wouldn't that decrease aerodynamics and 0-100 time becomes less

(soz i am new to all this modding stuff)

It has nothing to do with those two factors. Only comes into play when one side of the car experiences more loading than the other (which is what you get when you turn).

For reference:

Strut bar:

Rear Sway bar:

[Adamsy]

Or yep go for the diagrams lol, that even easier again :)

[benji4138]

lol, yeh I keep confusing the two....thanks for the save Daryl :)

All I know for sure is oversteer is quite fun with the 23mm RSB....rear anti roll bar ;)....and yes I don't recommend getting a car sideways on purpose, any doing so is at your own risk....

[DJKOR]

All I know for sure is oversteer is quite fun with the 23mm RSB....rear anti roll bar ;)

LOL. Needing to get oversteer enjoyment by upgrading the RSB. Should have bought a RWD.

[benji4138]

All I know for sure is oversteer is quite fun with the 23mm RSB....rear anti roll bar ;)

LOL. Needing to get oversteer enjoyment by upgrading the RSB. Should have bought a RWD.

Bahahaha....well I would've but the Aurion was just an all round awesome car....Couldn't go past it no matter how much RWD blood runs through my veins....

[N3ptuNe]

Amazing response, I just mentioned that Stiffening the front end without any rear end on a FWD Saloon would be nuts unless you like buying new rims and suspension due to the ultra oversteering to the gutter all the time lol :P

The ultra-strut racing rear support bars don't look very strong tho, would like to see some professional results, the only thing is no one in the world (except France maybe) races FWD Saloons. Does anyone race their Aurion or heard of someone racing an Aurion?

the Whiteline range look pretty hardcore for the Aurion but both rear sway and anti roll are very Expensive!

This dude has 2 Whiteline sway bars on his 3.5L Camry

Oversteering is fun in your Aurion? Bahahaha it's not an M3 :P

Edited April 2, 2011 by N3ptuNe

[DJKOR]

...would like to see some professional results.

Well the thing is, the Aurion isn't designed/intended to be raced so seeing professional comparative results is going to be a little difficult. I've taken my old Sportivo out to QR before, but the time I got means nothing unless I had a time done without the upgraded RSB.

If the car isn't meant to be raced professionally, then what's the point you might ask? Driver enjoyment. Having the car feel like it handles much better is satisfying enough.

On the non-professional scale of things, I have done many upon many mountain runs in my Aurion and the difference between the stock and upgraded RSB is very noticeable.

[N3ptuNe]

I would like to go to time trials at Malala one day in the future when The boss books it to trial is Lambo I'll be trialing against a Supercharged VR Calais, VY SS and a VZ HSV Clubsport the general commodore Bogans cars who I beat in a straight line :P , I'm going to make sure I have the car running at it's peak.

Anyhow noticed the Aurions stock Rear anti roll bar, I was surprised it came out stock with one! :) I figured I'll get the ultra racing rear end in about 2 weeks