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Location:
Madrid - Spain
Registered:
August 2002
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Re: Strut Bars Front/Rear: Myths and Facts
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Tue, 29 April 2003 03:28
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One of the biggest problems with desiging a car chassis is maintaining adequate stiffness. Usually this is a trade off between cost and performance and you can guess where the trade is pushed.
The idea of a strut brace is to increase the chassis stiffness where the load carrying suspension points are. The idea being that the suspension cannot do it's job properly when it's mounting points are moving about. As norbie said, a macpherson strut will benifit from a strut brace as the strut is responsible for locating the upper half of the suspension. Live axel, double wishbone, 5-link etc set ups probably won't benifit from a strut brace because the towers are not locating the suspension components, only the shocks.
As far as fore/aft members on a strut brace are concerned, most of these loads will be taken by the lower control arms / wishbones. The proportion of this load of course depends on the suspension geometry, but I doubt you would see much of a difference.
What I find interesting is that a lot of these strut braces are bent, which means that they have to be made a lot heavier to maintain the same stiffness as a straight bar. All this weight is carried very high in the chassis, loading up the suspension more in a corner. I guess some have to be bent to get around the engine without fouling on the bonnet, however I have seen plenty that are bent for no reason but to look good. I guess it is a good place to put a company sticker 
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| | Subject | Poster | Date |
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Strut Bars Front/Rear: Myths and Facts
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BlackSupra | Sun, 27 April 2003 23:26 |
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Re: Strut Bars Front/Rear: Myths and Facts
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Norbie | Sun, 27 April 2003 23:56 |
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Re: Strut Bars Front/Rear: Myths and Facts
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HooN | Sun, 27 April 2003 23:57 |
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Re: Strut Bars Front/Rear: Myths and Facts
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BlackSupra | Mon, 28 April 2003 00:18 |
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Re: Strut Bars Front/Rear: Myths and Facts
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FWDCelica | Mon, 28 April 2003 03:36 |
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Re: Strut Bars Front/Rear: Myths and Facts
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Norbie | Mon, 28 April 2003 03:48 |
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Re: Strut Bars Front/Rear: Myths and Facts
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BigWorm | Mon, 28 April 2003 09:04 |
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Re: Strut Bars Front/Rear: Myths and Facts
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shinybluesteel | Mon, 28 April 2003 09:33 |
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Re: Strut Bars Front/Rear: Myths and Facts
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Stefan | Mon, 28 April 2003 14:45 |
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Re: Strut Bars Front/Rear: Myths and Facts
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gold28 | Tue, 29 April 2003 03:28 |
