[Review] Ultra Racing 23mm Rear Anti-Roll Bar for VW Jetta

Having tracked the "Altis" several times in Sepang and also some competitive events, I figured out areas that needs improvement for the "Altis" to suit me.

One of it is to make the body roll more controllable.
So off I go to my usual place, EA Autoworks to get the necessary parts and services.

The area of upgrade for this time will be the rear anti-roll bars.
The "Altis" comes with 16mm rear anti-roll bar as standard fare from factory.

I am going to replace the stock 16mm rear anti-roll bar with Ultra Racing 23mm Rear Anti-Roll Bar.

 

The replacement process is straight forward and as simple as ABC. Literally.

Raise the car on the hoist. 

Remove the stock anti-roll bar.

Fit in the new anti-roll bar.

Voila. Work completed.

It's time for a test drive at the nearby "handling test course".

The effect of a bigger anti-roll bar is immediate. The car stay flatter around corners now as it is having a much higher resistant to roll now.

Make no mistake, at its limit, the car still have the roll angle of the stock anti-roll bar but with the bigger Ultra Racing 23mm Rear Anti-Roll Bar, the car take a longer time and more force to get there. So this indirectly translate to a "flatter" cornering experience, in layman terms.

As the "handling test course" did not allow for a much higher speed of cornering, it is left to the usual "test track" of many regular driving kakis.

A date is setup with the regular people for a dash uphill.

What ever experience felt during the "handling test course" is replicated at the corners of the "test track".

As the "test track" allows for a much higher speed run, the improvement is more apparent.

The "Altis" has a much sharper turn-in now compared to before and this allows the car to literally dive into a corner later without much worry about the rear swinging wildly about from such last minute maneuver as the up-rated anti-roll bar keep the weight transfer in check.

Taking sweeping corners are now better as the weight transfer is more gradual, thus the car sit flatter through most of the corners and this allow me to have more time on the throttle and less time correcting the car mid-corner. Indirectly this translate to a "faster" drive as you spend more time on the throttle.

All in all, I would say this would be a good up-grade for those who don't want to sacrifice the comfort of stock suspension while at the same time looking for some improvement over their stock suspension.

Just remember that this is an improvement but do not expect the level of handling improvement that coil-overs or sports springs provides. 

Note to kids:

Changing to a bigger anti-roll bar is not magic. You still need proper coil-overs or sports springs to improve your vehicle handling.