Strut tower brace
Race Car
Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 3,706
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From: Virginia Beach, Va.
Those shock towers have A LOT of unused real estate in between them...and if you paid attention in Physics class, there's NO question that a strut brace can and would beneficial. 
Just think about all the cars that have braces available for them, about every sports car there is, and it's just not clever marketing...think back to your Physics class again.
Just think about all the cars that have braces available for them, about every sports car there is, and it's just not clever marketing...think back to your Physics class again.
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Joined: Jun 2001
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From: California Boardwalk, Skanderborg Denmark
Some ideas for the discussion:
1) The factory Porsche bar is an aluminum, simple, ridgid design that weighs only 2.25 pounds on my scale. How much does a stainless or other steel bar weigh.
2) The strut towers move AWAY from each other at the top under cornering load, promoting positive camber. The struts toward move TOWARD each other under braking promoting negative camber. This means the struts help in both cornering and braking.
3) I think the bars help more if you have a monobal upper shock mount since in a stock car, most of the suspension strut's motion is in the rubber shock mount. <img border="0" alt="[typing]" title="" src="graemlins/yltype.gif" />
1) The factory Porsche bar is an aluminum, simple, ridgid design that weighs only 2.25 pounds on my scale. How much does a stainless or other steel bar weigh.
2) The strut towers move AWAY from each other at the top under cornering load, promoting positive camber. The struts toward move TOWARD each other under braking promoting negative camber. This means the struts help in both cornering and braking.
3) I think the bars help more if you have a monobal upper shock mount since in a stock car, most of the suspension strut's motion is in the rubber shock mount. <img border="0" alt="[typing]" title="" src="graemlins/yltype.gif" />
Technical Specialist
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From: TX
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica"><strong>I think the bars help more if you have a monobal upper shock mount since in a stock car, most of the suspension strut's motion is in the rubber shock mount. </strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">That's one reason why I like the Weltmeister strut bar for the pre-89's. It locks the shock top into the strut bar assembly...what I characterize as a poor man's monoball+strut brace.
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From: springfield, MO USA
I'm not sure that that is such a wonderful idea. Way back, I remember reading about this. I seem to remember that the argument was that this rigidly locked the strut to the tower, negating the the shock absorbing provided by the mountings, making it harder on the strut. Mabey someone has a better memory about this than I and wants to chime in?
Race Car
Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 3,706
Likes: 10
From: Virginia Beach, Va.
Horst, while that earlier design may have been harder on the threaded shaft of the strut, it still provided structural rigidity...something us performance minded NUTS would be interested in, but not necessarily providing the best ride or longevity to the strut assembly.
I think Bill made a decent comparison with his "poor man's monoball/brace" analogy.
I think Bill made a decent comparison with his "poor man's monoball/brace" analogy.
