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Hello needmoregarage! Always like reading your posts!
- Are the strut tower plates to beef up the OEM system? Did you have strut tower issue or was this preventative?
Saw the pictures - ouch! Entirely preventative. I understand that most don't understand why they make a difference. My intuition is the same, but nevertheless, the cup cars / clubsport use them, so intuition may be deceptive. Installation is an easy process. Your closest VW dealer has the bolts/nuts in stock. The bushings are cut from an aluminum pipe (cf. Home Depot ;-) The mount points are part of the stock chassis. I believe they decided not to have these plates in the stock car because it requires modifications to the plastic covers, i.e. they had to make different molds for a very limited # of cars = not enough "bang for the buck". If you lock closely at the pictures you will see the recesses in the covers to make everything lay flat....
I have also wondered how those plates would help and it just hit me...they will help in the case of torque. If, for whatever reason, the system has a torque/moment put on it, those plates will help react that moment. Maybe the designers of the top strut mount had a "punch through" type loading in mind and never considered additional stress from a twisting load. In "engineer" speak, if you add torsion to a normal stress, it can be a big deal in terms of yielding the material.
Also, how many road/track miles put that many dings in the radiators?
Regarding the torque loading to the strut mount - keep in mind that there is a spherical bearing at the top of the damper that should minimize or eliminate torsional load on the mount. To me, the mystery continues, but given all the other cost of GT4 maintenance, this one is a no-brainer.
At this time, the car has 12.5kmi, almost 2.5kmi of which are track miles. Keep in mind that the energy of pebbles/rubber/grass hoppers is proportional to velocity-squared. So, passing another car in close proximity at 120mph creates 4-times the impact as doing the same at 60mph. Also the distances are closer, so a lot more "bang" during track use.
Hence the popularity of clear film at least on the front.
Hey, they make cars to drive, not look at. ;-)
01-03-2018, 02:53 PM
