strut brace yay or nay?

[robert walsh]

Hi, have ordered several parts of late waiting for arrival to install, keep you posted on the results, any thoughts on how effective a strut brace on a 83, cabriolet, not racing or anything, just to improve body flex and general handling?? not sure if they are worth the investment, or for that matter what exactly they are suppose to do or improve. thanks

[JeremyD]

yes - although I went with the rennline with the integrated monoballs. Definite improvement in steering response

[wastintime]

I also am a big fan of the Rennline

[Zef]

Sure...I can feel a small improvment in general handling (cornering). But mine is not three point one.

[RWebb]

search on strut + brace for literally thousands of posts on this

some are quite good at thought experiments/analysis and there is even a bit of real data out there also.

[burgermeister]

Lateral Stiffness of 911 Front Strut Tower

[John Watson]

I put an ERP strut bar in my 74S, and I may be wrong, but I can feel a tightness in the response now. its small, but there

[wastintime]

You probably do feel something. How much you actually feel depends on a great number of things, for instance, I swear I can feel a bigger difference on an '89 or later than an early car.

The biggest difference I've ever felt a strut bar make was on my WRX it was almost night and day with and without the strut bar. I actually ran them front and rear on that car. Not much really improves Porsche suspensions and as such you tend to not see as dramatic of an effect, but it's there. It tightens things up a bit and prevents the suspension geometry from changing.

[wastintime]

You probably do feel something. How much you actually feel depends on a great number of things, for instance, I swear I can feel a bigger difference on an '89 or later than an early car.

The biggest difference I've ever felt a strut bar make was on my WRX it was almost night and day with and without the strut bar. I actually ran them front and rear on that car. Not much really improves Porsche suspensions and as such you tend to not see as dramatic of an effect, but it's there. It tightens things up a bit and prevents the suspension geometry from changing.

[3.2Carrera]

i put a strut bar on my 85 Carrera, had it corner balanced and 4 wheel aligned and what a big difference, feels like you have more control of the car when you are turning into corners.... you should go for it, you wont be sorry!!!

[Kemo]

+1 on the rennline strut brace - monoball package. Its a DIY install and it looks great. Plus, no drilling because the bottom cross member mounts under the brake booster thingy.

[Miguel Antonett]

Yes

[911pcars]

Originally Posted by 3.2Carrera

i put a strut bar on my 85 Carrera, had it corner balanced and 4 wheel aligned and what a big difference, feels like you have more control of the car when you are turning into corners.... you should go for it, you wont be sorry!!!

Not to doubt you, but multiple upgrades, adjustments and modifications often yield the same positive response. To know which one had minimal effect, however, is difficult to separate. In addition, starting from an out-of-spec condition to in-spec will always result in positive results.

The classic example: Replacing old, faulty spark plug wires with a new set of racy spark plug wires. Result: Instant power and torque, all because of:

a) the brand name, racy, colorful spark plug wire set
or
b) a spark plug wire with good conductor/insulator

Sherwood

[barney911rs]

Unless the car is being tracked, is it really worth it??? That is what I got from his question. He said he's not racing, but not sure if that means no DE as well. I agree for a track car they are good stuff.

[moneymanager]

I'm with John. Can't imagine what these would do for you on the street. I'm pretty sure I'm not a good judge of these things, but I don't notice much on the track either.

[afterburn 549]

+1 for anyone who "drives " their car

[tcar]

Not much on the 'nay' side of the ledger...

It's a cab (more body flex), he's driving on the street... maybe it's not going to give you that much bang for the buck.

Anyone?

[911pcars]

Strut bars fall into that category of automotive accessories of "It can't hurt". The use of such products can't be easily tested for positive or negative impact in a street application and they generally look good and racy, as equipped in a dedicated track-based car; IOW, an aftermarket suppliers dream product.

Sherwood
(I have one too)

[wastintime]

Why can't they be easily tested for a positive impact? It might not be terribly easy to do by yourself in your own car, but there's tons of data out there on them. The fact that certain mazdas and hondas come stock with them should mean something too.

I'm not sure you could argue a negative aside from the fact that it has to weight something.

[RWebb]

- benefits are tied to G-forces and to the SPECIFIC car they are used on - 'data' from a Mazda is of no value.

- on the street, G-forces are low

- where are the "tons of data"??? I haven't seen ANY real data AT ALL. The best I have seen was a static load measurement posted here, but he used a piece of wood. And a claim in the old Automotion catalog that somebody had used a displacement or strain gage to measure tower movement - no data presented there. If you mean the plethora of "hey I put one on and it feels groovy" type posts, those are NOT data. They are are called anecdotes in the biz.

- one could do a subjective evaluation on a known course, driven repeatedly at known speeds, BUT you would have to control for placebo effects, so that means several people involved to keep the driver from knowing when he has it connected.

It is always possible that the magnitude of an effect is so large that no experimental design is needed. But that is not the case for a strut bar. It would apply to comparing something with truly great effects - like a flat tire.