Bracing

[luke gtr]

Ok, been a bit slack because I'm using mobile version of the site, and not using search.

But i have been wondering......

Does the benefit of a stiffened chassis, outweigh the extra weight added by body/chassis braces.

I know moat of the imports out there run a strut brace, but where do you draw the line?

Lately I've been seeing a lot of underfloor, and under guard braces for sale, also braces the reinforce the front subframe on skylines.

Anyone tested these with conclusive results?

Would be interesting to find out.

[sweefu]

I'd say it would also depend on the type of driving you are doing, for street/touge cars excessive bracing/stiff suspension will be negative for handling, but on track it could help.

[GTSBoy]

It's going to be impossible to say whether the benefits outweigh the costs.  But I would hazard a guess that given how creaky and rattly most Skylines and S13s etc are getting as they get on in years, simple things like the braces that go under the guards from the firewall to the strut towers would probably be quite a good thing.  They'd have to help hold the whole front end together.

The braces that go over the trans tunnel behind the seats are probably useless.

Strut braces are nearly useless on Skylines (on the front and on the rear) because they don't have Macpherson struts so it doesn't make any real difference to the front suspension if the tops of the towers move around a little.  That said, stiffening up the front, especialy with 3 point braces that tie the towers to the firewall, is still probably worth the weight.

Once you get past that, you have to wonder if any of the rest even do anything at all let alone be worth their weight.  The ones that go between the front ends of the castor rods might.  You could imagine a bit of relative movement between those points.  But I would expect that unless you tied those points to some other part of the chassis (like up to the towers) then they'd still move around, even if they're tied together.

Edited January 13, 2012 by GTSBoy

[GTRsean]

Um.... have you driven your car with a strut brace, then driven it without? Definately a difference in the way the car handles the road irregularities!!

Especially if it's an older vehicle. the towers do flex even if it's a double wishbone setup, it is still applying forces to the top and sides of the towers.

I had the following in my 32gtr:

Front and rear strut braces.

Triangle braces that I fitted. they go behind the front guards.

These cars do well with extra bracing as the 33-34gtr had extra bolt on braces etc standard and feel so much more rigid and 'planted'....

[ausdrift]

my 33 is braced to the hilt!

front strut brace, rear seat over tunnel brace, rear beefy stabilisor, front casterarms? bracing thing, kasnasi service underbody brace, rear suspension member bracing from KTS and I just ordered a rear tower brace.

The car is pretty stiff now, although if i really wanted to make it drift flatter i would change the spring rates to something harder. still, im sure it all cant hurt, although i gotta mention I didnt notice so much different from the last 2 parts, kts parts and kansai serice parts, but maybe that was just because there was so much other shit already on it.