Today I got round to fitting my lower strut brace, purchased from Nigel on his last group buy.
Other than a sparco top brace, my ride hight and suspension are standard.I was going to wait until I renewed my 70k wishbones and dampers (planned to do in about a month) but the opportunity of a free ramp and skilled pair of hands arose today,so on it went.
Well anyone who says they can't notice the differance must be driving in boxing gloves!!
After a short (but sprited) 8 mile test drive I can honestly say it makes a great improvement to the feel and feedback at the wheel.
I just wonder why fiat didn't sort out this out in the factory ? The handling reviews would have been much more favorable.
Now I can't wait to get my new wishbones and dampers.
My aim will be to myself get the best feel and handling, whilst retaining the compliance of the standard ride height and springs(less back pain).
My brakes are already sorted with Tar-ox discs and fast road pads so the addition of a rear antiroll bar could be the next step.
If your looking to improve your coupes proformance then I believe brakes and suspension should be your priority before engine mods.Its money well spent without the risks and pain of engine mods.

But should that rear rollbar follow the wishbones and dampers?or am I missing a step ?

Thanks to Nigel for a great bit of kit.
Thanks to ginge for your time today.

P.S It's still standard (and beautiful) on the outside.

Uprated rear ARB makes a huge difference - you'll love it!

When you get all the wishbones done, fit some camber bolts at the same time - for the price they are well worth it and you're going to have to get the tracking set anyway

It'll feel like a new car!

As in another thread next to this one, you'd feel it even more if you'd have a lowered car with extra camber upfront.

Agreed, strange Fiat did'nt do this effort! The std downpipe though, is hard to get around without ruining the ground clearence.

i think once all the little jobs on my coop are done this is one of the next mods as i really want to get the handling up to date.
shame nigel doesn't have any more braces but i will try and soruce one if not then il buy a omp one and get the welder out!

Tim - glad you like it

Its good to hear from somone that's fitted a brace to an otherwise standard car - I wasn't aware that it would make such a difference.

Peanut - the machine shop *might* be persuaded to make one-offs, but they would be in the region of £150 due to the time taken in tooling up and having to buy in small quantities of material

If you can stand this sort of cost, I can enquire for you.

I really am loathed to lower the car as fun is the name of the game and its NO fun trying to avoid pot holes on our third world highways.
I'd just like to explore what can be done in comfort (so to speak).
It would be great to compare the pace of a really well sorted standard sprung car against a lowered firmly sprung one, over a real roads (humps and bumps included).
Obviously for those with Damen Hill asperations going the extra mile is vitally important.
I like the idea of the rear roll bar as the coupe seams to have plenty of grip but at a fair bit of angle.
I've heard whiteline bars mentioned here on the forum.
Would this be a good choise with a standard front bar or is it better to get matched pair ?

Anyway if your reading this without a top and bottom brace go sort it NOW !
I can't believe It's taken me so long.
Now I just want to go for a drive

I have a whitline rear ARB waiting to be fitted, but I didn't want to fit it until I've got my new shocks sorted and a lower front brace. I might have to look at a lower front brace now!

Gareth

Great little write up, look forward to fitting mine

once i have bought my other suspension bit i recon i would be up for this but i need to get the coop running lovely first and some nice shocks springs and top mounts.
basicly i think i am going for the same setup as your car nigel as it seams to be the best comprimise on handling,comfort and price.
hopefully il have some koni's soon and then im getting some apex springs for a 16vt and maybe eibech front and rear arb's brovo top mounts and gtv camber bolts and omp front upper brace.

Got mine on too! Definately makes a noticable difference! Now if only I could stop my 'pulling left' issue......

Is it worth fitted an uprated rear ARB on it's own ?

...or should I consider doing the front too ?

Just the uprated rear ARB reduces the understeer, that's why I have it (the 22mm Whiteline).

Actually, with both -1.5deg camber and rear mounted battery mine's sometimes a handful of lift-off oversteer! Add heavy braking on a trackday and you'd have a rather wide manouver..

Ok great - I think I may well be getting one of these...also do the camber bolts make a noticable difference to front end grip ?

Yes they certainly do! They will almost suck you into the roundabouts..

They also make the front a bit more nervous in a straight line, nothing I couldn't stand though. And the lower brace made it almost normal again...

excellent - I reckon I will get these done at the same time ! thanks for the feedback....

I had a bit of an "incident" at Spa Italia with camber bolts. I went round the bus stop chicane and because i was putting so much load onto the bolts, they actually slipped out of position causing my tracking and camber to completely fccuk up.
I took the wheel off and they were pretty tight, but i solved the problem by nipping them up.
Morale of the story is, make sure they are nice and tight after set-up.
I'm going to go back to the place who set mine up, complain they didn't tighten them enough, and get them to set it all up again.

I remember that Matt - would you still recommend I get them ?

Yeah i would Mike, i think the issue with mine, was the trainee monkey that set them up. They were fine after i tweeked them

It is very important to tighten them to the correct torque yes. Which is on the package (H&R anyway).

Interesting - I only had camber bolts fitted after a lower brace (upper brace, whiteline rear ARB, bilstein and eibachs all fitted previously ) and at 1 degree negative I didnt notice the front being any more nervous at all - the braces must be doing their jobs!

After approx 8 months of 1 degree negative, I've no noticiable difference in tyre wear so next time the car is tracked I'm going to get them to set it to 1.15 and see how that works!

I have ARBs, braces AND camber bolts and its set up so that its still "planted" when on motorways.

Although my turn-in and front-end grip are both vastly improved, the stability hasn't suffered at all. It still feels rock steady at very high speeds - its all down to getting the correct geometry and more importantly, maintaining the same geometry while all sorts of forces are trying to alter it for you. This is why the lower brace is so effective - it removes a significant flex from the setup

out of interest nigel do you think if you went for a coilovers your handling would greatly improve and how good actually are you koni's?

i think a front brace really needs to be on my list to get very shortly.
get the car mint then start amking it handle very well

I reckon some GOOD coilovers would help, but I don't have a grand to spare. The Konis are OK, but not as good as the Osravs

would you say on par with billes then even give the harder ride? osravs are a option but i would need to save. what springs do you run?

IMHO, Konis are better than Billies, simply because they are adjustable

I run Eibach springs

Getting this back on topic, I've decided to look at another subframe brace group buy - check out the GB section

well hopefully il get the koni's than :-)
i have seen the group buy and i really want one just got to make sure i can afford it as i have to get the car in good working order first really before i spend to much on fancy parts.
im sure i will beable to get one though.