*** This is a post which I did on another forum which relates to my 500hp VL Turbo. The vacuum ball does exactly the same on the VS model ***
It is a vacuum reserve. It is used to store air to help keep air con vents on the setting that you choose such as face. feet or windscreen etc. Reason why its there is because when the car is close to zero vacuum under acceleration or actually in boost (ie no vacuum in the manifold), it uses the stored air in this vacuum ball to keep the vents on the current setting.
I have removed the vacuum ball from my vehicle. The side affects are that if im accelerating and the vacuum is close to zero or in the positive (boost), my vent changes back to default which I think is maybe the feet setting. Its a small thing to worry about for me as the extra room made way for 2 trans coolers in the place where the vacuum ball once resided.
Yes I still run air con and yes if I have the vents set to face and fan blowing strong, when I accelerate at any level above granny spec, the air reduces and in heavy acceleration it stops coming out of face vents and goes to feet or windscreen until I back off and I reduce the engine manifold back into the vacuum reading.
Its up to you whether you want it there or not (you can even relocate it to another location without too much fuss if you like). I can put up with it gone as normally if its hot enough to use the air con, then its normally not the wisest thing to be consistently heavily accelerating, although even with mild acceleration, the flow of air is nearly non existent until I back off and drive under steady throttle.