Strut Brace -- Take a look

[mholbrook]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...Pr3_PcY_BIN_IT

I bought one of these strut braces and it came yesterday. Quality looks great and I don't anticipate any fit problems as it sat right on the bolts. I'm going to install this afternoon but wanted to pass this on to you guys.

The price seems right to me.

[Alexlind123]

It looks pretty good, i think i might prefer steel though.

[SRR2]

That looks a LOT more substantial than most of them. You have to laugh at those that have massive bars and mounting plates, then have a 1/4" threaded "adjuster" at one end. I don't recall whose was like that, but I think it was one of the 'name' brands. Ridiculous. I wonder how much the bow in the brace reduces the stiffness. Too bad the engine and hood placement prevents using a perfectly straight brace.

What do you expect this thing to do for you? Do you autocross the car or something where that little bit of extra rigidity will make a difference?

[Scott H]

substantially effective......but I hear what you are saying about the "adjustable" ones.....

That looks a LOT more substantial than most of them. You have to laugh at those that have massive bars and mounting plates, then have a 1/4" threaded "adjuster" at one end. I don't recall whose was like that, but I think it was one of the 'name' brands. Ridiculous. I wonder how much the bow in the brace reduces the stiffness. Too bad the engine and hood placement prevents using a perfectly straight brace.

What do you expect this thing to do for you? Do you autocross the car or something where that little bit of extra rigidity will make a difference?

[zmuff]

Looks like a pretty good deal. 6063 T-6 is good stuff, nice high shear and tensile strength, and very resistant to corrosion. I think I may have to get one. Let us know if goes on as easy as it looks.

[ericcamaro]

is there a bar made for the e34 that ties into the firewall as well??? doesnt seem like theres much room with the wireing harness right there and a bunch of other crap, prolly have to be a custom piece???

[Erwin8r]

substantially effective......but I hear what you are saying about the "adjustable" ones.....

Not true. The idea is to try to minimize the movement between the two shock towers. A straight bar between them would be ideal. A "bowed" bar is less than perfect, but still far better than none at all. And there is a discernable "tightening up" of the steering response and feel when running a strut tower brace even carving through canyon roads, let alone race track, time attack (might be doing some next week at Cal Speedway...) or autocross. Besides, a lot of the things we enthusiasts do to our cars cannot nor should not be justified using the "need" standard... just my .02....

[Scott H]

both strut towers can move together in unison.....a perfect strut bar!

I wasn't justifying anything, you took my post to mean something it did not. I never told anyone not to get one.

I was merely stating the fact that without tying it in to the firewall, it's not attached to a more fixed position.....therefor you're still losing the full intended rigidity/stiffness achieved by using a strut bar in the first place. The idea is to get rid of any movement at all, not just side to side movement, but up and down as well....how do you think this happens?



The addition of a tower to tower brace is noticeable, but not 100% effective. When you say steering response, what do you mean? Initial turn in? Structural stability maintained through hard cornering so that any flex is not affecting camber? I maintain that the strut tower brace on my M5 with has done nothing to initial turn in(camber plates have though) but has helped with lateral stability and tracking in high speed cornering....

Not true. The idea is to try to minimize the movement between the two shock towers. A straight bar between them would be ideal. A "bowed" bar is less than perfect, but still far better than none at all. And there is a discernable "tightening up" of the steering response and feel when running a strut tower brace even carving through canyon roads, let alone race track, time attack (might be doing some next week at Cal Speedway...) or autocross. Besides, a lot of the things we enthusiasts do to our cars cannot nor should not be justified using the "need" standard... just my .02....

[hakwuzhere]

Scott, Ive driven a few cars with strut tower bars, before and after. They were all similar to the bar listed in the auction above. I noticed a much more rigid feel to cornering and body roll. Is this not desireable for hard cornering? Or is it not improving the cornering capability?

I understand that none of these will preform as well as a custom fabricated strut tower bar on a racecar... but AFAIK no one here drives a 5 series racecar.

(Edit: Oh, and they do kinda look cool... so a $200 mod that improves handling somewhat and the looking cool is a bonus)

(Edit2: Im just a bit unclear on understeer vs oversteer, I know out of the box our cars are designed to understeer because that is easier to control, but oversteer if handled properly can improve performance. It says in the auction that a front strut tower bar lowers understeer. Which has a higher effect on understeer, front or rear strut bars?... along those same lines, front or rear sways? or should you just do both and reduce over and understeer....(does this question make sense?))

[califblue]

looks pretty good and has an attractive price.
here is HARTEG one
http://www.auto-mark.com/