Strut Brace?

[Shed17]

A strut brace does not stiffen the suspension it merely holds the shock towers at a constant distance apart. This stops the towers moving apart under hard cornering which stops a change in camber which is detrimental to handling.

What you usualy find is that the front feels more pointable into corners, however if your geometry is out this can make things worse.

[domster]

Shed17 said:

A strut brace does not stiffen the suspension it merely holds the shock towers at a constant distance apart. This stops the towers moving apart under hard cornering which stops a change in camber which is detrimental to handling. What you usualy find is that the front feels more pointable into corners, however if your geometry is out this can make things worse.

While it does not 'stiffen' the suspension, it is still strengthening the chassis 'box' that the suspension bolts onto. This has a limited torsional rigidity and there will come a point where your chassis is flexing more than your rock hard suspension (assuming rose joints etc. in a race car scenario). It isn't so important with normal road car suspension, but I am not sure it will never 'stiffen the suspension'. There will come a point when a strut brace or chassis strengthening mods could be the only way to stiffen the suspension, surely?

As I mentioned a few posts back, sports cars are often designed by their manufacturers with a certain amount fo chassis flex in mind. In the example of an E36 M3 Evo, the settings under cornering load are not the same as 'at rest, on the flat'. These settings were chosen for their neutrality etc. When a strut brace was added, the suspension didn't move to these optimum settings as the shock towers couldn't move and understeer resulted.

I just don't see the point of fiddling around with strut braces in isolation of full suspension geometry alignment/modification. And this is from someone who has has a lovely shiny Kremer Racing strut brace on a 964RS

[MOD500]

Just had the Bilstein PSS9 kit fitted to the car as the standard Monroe items were dying (57K miles). Had a Techart strut brace fitted too whilst the car was in the shop.

I cannot comment pre and post strut bar since the suspension was changed too, but the car feels a lot tighter on the front end and the fatty boy hippo wallow through tighter faster bends on the road has gone. It will be very interesting to see how the car handles at v-max now.

I will post some pics up in another thread if people want? The car sits approx. 25mm lower than standard now and looks more purposeful. I have all the geometry settings written down too, and will post them for people's comment if they wish?

>> Edited by MOD500 on Friday 25th February 10:15

[marcevo1]

on a road car a front strut brace has two functions

1 - looks nice
2 - stops you filling the front with too much shopping

seriously yes they do reduce some flex keeping geometry in line - on normal roads you will need a spare driving licence (to absorbe points!) before you will feel any benefit.

i have one fitted - mainly because it looks nice!