Do you guys think that front and/or rear strut tower bar or shock tower bar (rear) help any?

There are a few brands out there, Racing Dynamics, FVD, Evoms etc...

up front they all seem to be hinged which I don't understand how it can prevent or mitigate deflections (having a hinge makes the bar a non-rigid body by definition - so how can it prevent deflectiion)?

in the rear the area is very beefy to begin with, with the mounting area integrated into the car's structure and fortified as a spring load point on the chassis. This being the case would a bar there just add redundancy where not applicable or useful at all? Furthermore, with the factory Bose speaker the rear bar is hidden with the supplied brackets that allow it to be mounted underneath the box...

how many of you guys use these bars, or see the benefits of them...

in my race car which is a touring car body, I have a non hinged adjustable front strut bar and the rear tower cross bar is integrated into a fully welded certified safety roll cage...

I was thinking about getting some bars for the Porsche but I don't see how the available options help much if any, and wanted to get some thoughts before purchasing...

 

I had a straight strut in my 993 and thought it helped but I'm like you in that I also thought the hinged 996 bar would be useless.

 

Strut tower braces were useful in pre 996 cars. With the redesign 996 and later, I don't think they are really needed on a modded street car.

 

Yeah I was wondering if these braces are more for show or serve a purpose...the rears are covered up by the BOSE speaker and the front is covered by the plastic trim that goes over the cowl and battery area in the trunk...

So then I thought maybe these were functional but then again the issue of hinged joints come up??

does anyone run these or know of folks who do? Would be great to have some experiential data at least to see if these made any difference whatsoever in either a street car or a track situation...

thanks

 

Look at all the chassis metal between the towers of a 996tt. An add-on brace
is useless. Completely useless.

 

I have the RUF front strut tower brace. It does help eliminate some of the flex. How do I know? Unknown to me, mine was not tightened properly and became slightly loose. When going over uneven terrain I could hear a clicking / groaning noise from the front caused by the flexing of the strut towers. Once I tracked it down and tightened the nuts the noise was gone and the front feels solid.

 

I have the RUF front strut tower brace. It does help eliminate some of the flex. How do I know? Unknown to me, mine was not tightened properly and became slightly loose at the point where the bar attaches to the strut mount plate. When going over uneven terrain I could hear a clicking / groaning noise from the front caused by the flexing of the strut towers. Once I tracked it down and tightened the bolts the noise was gone and the front feels solid again. FWIW, I don't think the design of the factory bracing is very effective as it does not crate much of a "bridge".

 

Is the RUF front bar a hinged setup, does the middle bar have pivot points where the mouning brackets are? Can you take a picture of this strut bar...? thanks...

Also I am assuming you just have the front bar John, and not any rear bar...the rear seems to have a ton of reinforcement on the shock tower suspension load points, there is an entire chassis bulhead to where the rear subframe and the suspension is attached. I don't think adding a bar out back would make any difference unless welded and part of a roll cage like on a cup car...

 

Yes, I only have the strut brace in the front. I think the rear is stiff enough and in my case I have a tequipment roll bar which stiffens it a little bit more. The front RUF strut brace consists of strut tower mounts which are bolted to the strut towers (3 bolts on each side) and the bar itself which is bolted to the strut tower mounts via 2 bolts on each side. There is no hinge. Everything is bolted together to form a rigid "bridge". The strut tower bar is hidden under the plastic covers in the trunk and I would have to remove all that to take a picture. You can see a picture of it on the RUF website. Just click on the "996 parts programme" and scroll down to the strut brace. Hope that helps.

 

I just sent an email to Mike Melville over at RUF USA for clarification and some detailed pics of the bar's connection to the mounting wedges.

 

Another point on this subject is that Porsche might have intended there to be a bit of flex. Hard to believe Porsche would build such a car a not have considerable knowledge of any undesirable chassi flex.

A perfectly rigid, non-bending, non-flexing chassis may handle worse than one that moves about a bit. In some race vehicles flexing and such is desired.

Unless bracing -- like a roll cage -- was necessary for safety's sake I'd tend to leave the add on/bolt in chassis braces out ofthe car. They add weight.

Sincerely,

Macster.

 

Mike is a good guy, he'll take care of you. Here is a link to a strut brace that is very similar to the RUF:

http://www.rennline.com/Strut-tower-...ductinfo/SB62/

I would think that RUF knows these cars pretty well and that a strut brace is probably beneficial. They go as far as installing a IRC (integrated roll cage) costing about $25,000. I'm sure that if these braces were useless as some are pointing out then they probably would not do them, but what do I know?

 

Nice...thanks...that strut brace looks similar to the Evoms brace...seen here through USP

http://uspmotorsports.com/product_in...roducts_id=259

looks like the only differnce is black anodized connecting wedges vs. the brushed aluminum ones on the Rennline kit