strut brace

[funbobby]

anyone used these in particular on the 944? was thinking of getting one for my 944 cab and wondered what people made of the changes it made to handling.

[ew_topcat]

I had one on a golf i had once, the car had uprated suspension which was good but when i added the strut brace it really tightened up the front end, good turn in on corners.

[james]

Basically it'll stiffen up the chasis. It just adds extra strength between the top mounts of the suspension. Probably quite a good idea on a cab.

Of course, if you want to really stiffen the car up, put in a full cage. Might look a bit odd on a 944 cab though

[DontLift]

I have one on my 944 was told not to run the LEDA's without one, makes quiet a difference to the turn in when you slacken it off.

[james]

Sounds about right. If you're running stiffer suspension, you'll get higer forces transmitted to the top suspension mounts, so whoever told you about fitting the strut brace knew what he was taling about.

Not much point stiffening up the car in one place, and just moving the sogginess around

[dontlift]

james said:

Sounds about right. If you're running stiffer suspension, you'll get higer forces transmitted to the top suspension mounts, so whoever told you about fitting the strut brace knew what he was taling about. Not much point stiffening up the car in one place, and just moving the sogginess around

Exactly James, the one time I ran with it slackened off (having forgotten to do it back up after doing some work on the car the front end just felt soggy got home opened bonnet - applied spanners to strut brace and all better again

Although I have not run one with standard dampers, so cannot comment on what effect it would have.

[domster]

I tested strut brace ON/OFF in an E6 M3 once, and it would understeer more with it on. I think the suspension was optimised around the soggy chassis.

[james]

Did you just put one on the front? You might have found that it worked better with lighter springs (or a brace on the back too). If you stiffen the front up too much, you can easily end up understeering.

The secret of a good setup is to have the car properly balanced. Too stiff at one end or the other, and it'll be all over the place. I had this problem with one of my race cars. Whatever we did with the damper and geometry settings, it would understeer for England. I put some lighter springs on the front, and it was like a different car (and I mean different in a good way )

[dogsharks]

Experts have cautioned about removing the brace on the 928 and even driving it for a short while, due to the fact that it may loosen up body parts and potentially crack the windshield. I'd suspect the 944 could benefit from this too, because nobody wants to have the strut towers moving around. Probably a good addition to the car, however, if Porsche thought they needed one on the 944, after putting one on the 928 as standard equipment, you would think Porsche engineers would have made the move to do it as a factory addition.

Dogsharks

[domster]

james said:

Did you just put one on the front? You might have found that it worked better with lighter springs (or a brace on the back too). If you stiffen the front up too much, you can easily end up understeering. The secret of a good setup is to have the car properly balanced. Too stiff at one end or the other, and it'll be all over the place. I had this problem with one of my race cars. Whatever we did with the damper and geometry settings, it would understeer for England. I put some lighter springs on the front, and it was like a different car (and I mean different in a good way )

Yes, it was just one on the front. An aftermarket Schnitzer jobby. As you say, it needs to be totally balanced.

I was just surprised that a roll bar could stiffen up the suspension so much - I thought it merely prevented the struts moving and therefore the suspension angles from changing.

[clubsport]

The previous owner fitted one on my previous 911 CS, as this was the only non original fitment on the car.I took it off,neither myself or the previous owner could tell the difference on a 3.2 and he was a much better driver than I.

[james]

As a general rule of thumb, if you're goingto use the car for what it was originally designed to do, you shouldn't really need to change things like suspension, brakes etc. However, if you're going to be using a road car on the track, you might want to stiffen it up a bit and make it stop better. Equally, if you uprate the engine, then suspension and brakes should be uprated to match.