Carbing F&R Strut Bars and Cusco Side Bar Review

[Magpie]

You are doing things so out of order and you will find it difficult to sort out the wheat from the chaff mods. If your suspension is stuffed then the strut braces will 'feel' better, but with a well sorted/planned/executed suspension package the strut braces are a placebo.

Fix the suspension first, coilovers (if needed), ride height, spring rates, alignment, bushes, reduce the unsprung weight first then look into the fine tuning like sway bars, damper/rebound settings and possibly spring rates. Just adding a strut brace is well...

The path you are going has been trod so often by so many and they have been trying to give you the advice, however you can only flog a dead horse for so long and you have to face reality that no amount of flogging the horse will bring it back to life, but it is fun (for a while).

[Magpie]

No I'm not missing the point, if you were looking at scuttle shake then I would have understood frog arms and frame rails/butterfly brace, not suspension tower braces.

I went frame rails/butterfly brace as one of the first mods on the car, but the now removed suspension tower braces were last. Still no frog arms on my car yet. I have openly admitted that my tower braces were done because everybody else does so it is a good mod, WRONG!

Once you replace suspension it will no longer be stock or have stock handling especially considering your choice of spring rates.

Again I defer to your knowledge and look forward to reading your thoughts and decision making process.

[Magpie]

I scientifically challenge you to prove your statement on the strut braces. On an MX5 the dampers are not struts hence the braces can not be called strut braces!

[project.r.racing]

This is why we have chosen a steel brace with a thick base plate and a thick semi cone connecting the bar. The extra thickness does wonders for the vertical forces. The bar reduces the scuttle shakes.

you mean horizontal force right?

[Regie]

This is why we have chosen a steel brace with a thick base plate and a thick semi cone connecting the bar. The extra thickness does wonders for the vertical forces. The bar reduces the scuttle shakes.

you mean horizontal force right?

He must have got that sentence off Wikipedia.

Mx5's don't have strut suspension setups. Strut brace improvement would be very minimal say against a commodore or falcon with a different setup

[sailaholic]

Don't feed the troll.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[project.r.racing]

how does a horizontal bar with no perpendicular vertical welded bar attached stop up and down forces???

[project.r.racing]

how does a horizontal bar with no perpendicular vertical welded bar attached stop up and down forces???

You need one with a strong base and a tower on it.

that does not answer the question of how?

draw a line between the 2 objects the bar is attached to? is it a vertical line? or does the bar a least mount in a 3 point triangular setup?

[Pamex]

I loved my strut brace. Seriously loved it.

For leaning on, tieing things to, pretending it's a hilarious massive handle. So good.

It was worth every cent!

It was given to me. Currently being sold with proceeds going to a charity the chap supports.

If you too, would like a hilarious handle for your MX5, then you should buy mine.

I wasn't expecting it to do anything, and it didn't. However it looked cool.

[Magpie]

I'm trying so hard to not post in this thread, but it is a drug and I'm addicted.... Dupain, please do some more research (as suggested by others) you have failed to understand the forces involved and this leads you to make ill informed decisions and statements.

For example.... how these do not even discuss the type of suspension macpherson or double wishbane.

The variables are many here, but as a general rule – the strut brace allows more mortal drivers the ability to drive their cars closer to the limit by giving the car a more predictable and stable feel. A true professional driver would probably prefer a really stiff chassis, but could most likely turn similar if not identical times with and without the added stiffness (obviously there are extremes!!).
http://www.tuneruniversity.com/blog/2011/09/getting-stiff-strut-bars-and-braces/

Now let’s introduce the front-strut brace. As the front strut-brace is a rigid beam, it effectively “absorbs” the majority of the sheering force. To see exactly why this is the case, Imagine a large glass table that is supported only on the edges. Setting a heavy object could easily shatter the glass on this table, but if we reinforced the center of the table with aluminum supports, the rigidity of the glass is no longer an issue. So just as the aluminum reinforcements effectively “erase” the lack of rigidity in the table’s glass, the same is also true when a front-strut brace is added.
http://www.saabsunited.com/2012/08/dr-saabish-on-the-physics-of-the-front-strut-brace.html

Automotive engineers agree that increasing chassis rigidity imparts quicker and more responsive steering as a result of reduced chassis flex. Almost every racing car has chassis braces added or built in as original equipment for the benefits this rigidity imparts. Adding a strut brace to your family SUV or sedan will not make it into a race car but most drivers can perceive and appreciate the added rigidity assuming that a good quality strut brace is selected for installation, but it will not necessarily make your car faster.

The only valid and scientific method of measuring the effectiveness of a strut brace is to measure chassis rigidity before and after installation of a given brand of strut brace. The equipment that accomplishes this costs many millions of dollars and the car manufacturers are the only ones who are able to afford this equipment. Testing of chassis rigidity and methods to improve it are routine exercises at their R&D sites. Chassis rigidity is measured in units of Hertz in the USA and Newton Meters in Europe, these are highly scientific calculations.
http://www.strong-strut.com/strut_brace_facts.htm