Has anyone used this Floor Strut Bar?

I haven't used one, but below are my thoughts on strenghening the chassis:

The frist step towards a solid structure is tying the front and rear portions of any car into the subframes. These are the overhanging sections where almost all flexing occurs. Adding Subframes results in the biggest increase because this essentially creates a 2/3 frame on the bottom of the car (with the remaining 1/3 of the car being the engine bay and rear suspension after the frame rails stop.) Imagine the car divided into 3 boxes, the front box is the engine bay. The middle box is the passenger compartment, and the rear box is the rear suspension / trunk section. In order for the chassis to be stable these 3 sections need to be rigidly attached to one another. In the Fox3 chassis, the sheetmetal is too thin and the spot welds are too few to effectivly tie all these areas together. This is what leads to the "loose" chassis.

So when I see a brace such as the one in the link you provided, I have to wonder what it really does. I mean, bracing the two shorter halves of the car together doesn't seem to do much since the car isn't too wide to begin with. I would also venture the comment that I don't see other companies out there with this same setup for other cars (nor the OEM's using it)


Things that help:

SFC's
Strut tower braces that tie into the firewall


Known to do little or nothing:

Rear shock tower braces



Just my thoughts though....

I had an 86 VW Scirocco that benefited hugely from the rear shock tower brace. I could immediately feel a difference in handling on the SOTP meter. So I bought one up for my Mustang, drilled the wheel wells, cut the plastic shock covers, the whole deal. Bottom line, I felt no difference in handling, whatsoever. But it sure does look cool. Saleen used to put those in the SA-10 and SSC Fox body 'super' cars, however?!

If you already have full lenght SFC's look into a strut tower brace from MM or a respectible company. That really helps to tie the front section of the "boxes" together...


I theorize that the shock tower brace on the fox platform is useless simply because the towers are not very tall, thus limiting the amount of flexing that can occur from them.