Why do the Americans need so many products?

[gareth h]

Every now and then I dip into the American LS1 GTO forum, I'm amazed and confused by the products available for the GTO, particularly suspension: bushes, sway bars, uprated strut braces and numerous other widgets, after the basic coilover upgrade would any of these bits 'n' pieces be considered essential?

[well_fans]

getting a "proper" set of bushes will improve the handling of most cars. tougher sway bars will flex less under stress and help keep the car level, as will a stiffer strut brace. only question is just how far you really need/want to go to get a car that suits your driving style. not convinced many of us would ever drive the car hard enough to get all the benefit out of these mods.

[phrich]

The VXR has many of those things already and even the CV8 is stiffer than the GTO, so the Yanks are starting from a very low base.

[AussieRules]

well_fans said:

getting a "proper" set of bushes will improve the handling of most cars. tougher sway bars will flex less under stress and help keep the car level, as will a stiffer strut brace. only question is just how far you really need/want to go to get a car that suits your driving style. not convinced many of us would ever drive the car hard enough to get all the benefit out of these mods.

I disagree,
Over a 6 month period I added all poly bushes, uprated sway/anti roll bars, and other alignment products to my Scoob. At each stage a definite improvement was felt even under just normal road driving conditions. Turn in was sharper, less roll infact the whole car just felt so much tighter.
On track it was a total revelation......................from good...................to AMAZING.

[gareth h]

I have found the same in the past definate improvemnts with uprated ARBs and strut brace, there are adverts for uprated strut braces apparantly because the standard brace isnt strong enough, surely if it wasn't strong enough there would be visible signs of it deforming?

[AussieRules]

Now strut braces, thats a different story.
Most aftermarket strut braces and even OE items are pretty much for show, or if highly polished ally just the bling factor.
The only real way of making a strut brace work is to weld a solid bar between the two suspension turrets, either front or rear.
Unfortunately this is not practical or even possible in most real world cases so the next best option is a strut top brace but because of the way most fit there is just too much free play to make it really effective, saying that the Whiteline adjustable braces are not too bad coz at least you can tighten them up to remove 80% of the free play.

[Dan_S V8]

I don't know but there is nothing wrong with a bit of healthy competition, god knows it keeps the prices incredibly low!!!