Peter Baldwin's front arb
Turbo Mini Forums

I have been told that Peter Baldwin was running an arb with a motorcycle shock absorber a couple of years back in his Miglia. Have anybody any info or pictures of this?

The reason I ask is that I am not running any LSD on my Abarth racecar as this have a weight penalty og 65 kg. The car is 660 kg race ready with driver and I really feel bad about putting that much weight back in :( So trying to figure out another solution :)

Edited by vegar on 31st Mar, 2013.

www.shag.no

Yes he was , there were a few of them doing it. I think some still do. Ive heard a few different reasons for the damper but was only speculation. I no some of them run the balljoint spacers aswell to alter the roll centre but others dont !!

Il have some pics but am away from home at the mo and there on my laptop

rick

Not a clue about ur question but do you have any pics of the racer?

Adrian

www.shag.no

Cheers mate, that looks very nice :)

If you have or can get hold of MiniWorld mag February 2001 there is a feature by Bill Sollis on Pete's car with reference to the ARB. I have seen it and it does have a small damper on one side as a drop link which enables both wheels to stay on the tarmac since there is no LSD

I seriously doubt it!

At one time it was a fashion to put this type of ARB on a Miglia. I guess someone had the idea, won a race, and everybody copied it.

to my mind it makes no sense, if you start to think about what an ARB does, making one link a damper is just silly.

ARBs are great on road cars and can be a useful tuning aid on a race car; Especially on a bumpy track.

But if you want to save weight, just up the front spring rate for the same handling effect.

Fastest 998 mini in the world? 13.05 1/4 mile 106mph

From what I read in the magazine feature it was Pete that pioneered it and it was believed to be the secret of his success - according to Bill Sollis who wrote it, but in reality it is just his skill that gave him all his wins

I seriously doubt it!

The car runs an arb as of original. On this car the tiebars are the arb. I am running coilovers all around with 950 lbs at the back and 400 lbs at the front.
So I tought maybe it was an idea to build normal tie rods and use a arb like PB and softer front springs.
But I really can't se how this arb will work :)

www.shag.no

ooooh! thats gonna be fun with the fire lump in.

The damper is there to give turn in as a non damped ARB (As the damper is stiff ) but to gradually reduce the effect of the ARB out of the corner to give more grip on the inner wheel because of the lack of an LSD. Very sofisticated, and at a guess VERY hard to get working right.

I believe most of them use a motorcycle steering damper. Essentially it gives you a variable rate ARB.

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Edited by Tupers on 1st Apr, 2013.

Thanks Tupers. Just what I was looking for.

Vegard: jeah, I understand it now. This is something I will look in to when the rest is sorted. I plan to Get rid of the orginal arb anyway

www.shag.no