Unobtainium Rapido

[andyofcolumbusmerkur]

Pictures of the 19mm rear sway. These would have been gold originally. They measure a good 3/4 of an inch. So possibly more like 19.05mm. These are even fatter than bars found on the RS500 Cosworth. Also it is worth noting Rapido was making suspension parts for the XR before the Sierra RS Cosworth or Sierra RS500 Cosworth existed. Awesome.

[my8950]

I think someone was checking into having these ARB's made.
Russ did a run of the 15, or 16mm in 2020.
From what I recall, he has to have at least 10 people buy in before going any further.
Sent money, took a month or two, poof they show up.

I'm curious to find out what a 19mm rear bar would do over a 16mm.

[merkurdriver]

I'm curious to find out what a 19mm rear bar would do over a 16mm.

The 16 still has a little give to it, the 19 feels like a 30 when its in installed.

[Matt01]

Ive got the 28.5 front 19mm rear. I never had the 16mm to compare it to.
But ya I think its pretty awesome. I got into these cars just before everything became NLA.


hmm if only I had bought 1 of those MC2 Racing fuel pump kits haha.. I thought they would never disappear.

[john keefe]

I talked with Russ way back when, when at that time I was looking for the larger 19mm ARB. I was waiting on the FMS race suspension parts from the UK, and he was almost adamant that I don't use the 19mm. He said that with the stock suspension, he was getting way too much oversteer out of the rear, and would only sell me the 16mm. Tried to explain what I was getting to install, and that it would be a part-time track car (back then), but he wouldn't budge. Finally got a real one from Nigel up at Draken in BC. I guess if you're just stock or only mild upgrades, then he's probably right. If you upgraded to a huge front ARB, then the 19mm is probably needed unless you like a lot of understeer.

[andyofcolumbusmerkur]

From what I heard the 19mm could be dangerous in certain situations. Like a quick lane change on the highway. He didn't want people to think bigger was better and pushed for the 16mm.

[john keefe]

From what I heard the 19mm could be dangerous in certain situations. Like a quick lane change on the highway. He didn't want people to think bigger was better and pushed for the 16mm.

Yeah, I understood what he was worried about, but I was drastically upgrading the whole suspension, and even the RS's in UK had gone to the larger rear bar to balance the large front bar. Maybe too much liability for him if I wasn't also buying the large front bar from him, or maybe he was just worried that I was BS'ing him about having the other upgrades, just to get him to sell me the larger 19mm bar. Dunno.

[andyofcolumbusmerkur]

Front bar. A little bigger than the stock 26mm. Seems just a little over 28mm. Possibly due to the paint.

[andyofcolumbusmerkur]

I'm told the Sierra Cosworth front bar is 28mm and shaped a little different than the Rapido front bar. Also the Rapido front bar is closer to 28.5mm which is almost what I got using my 2 dollar harbor freight measuring device.