because in all honestly they dont do anything unless you have coilovers. where most of them attach to the firewall, they attach at a weak point, so they provide no real chassis stiffening whatsoever.
i kinda did everything at once, so i couldnt really see the efficiency of each individual mod that i did. i never had a STB, they mostly just get in the way when replacing spark plugs.
FLSFC's are always a good mod on your platform though. if anything they give you a good place to jack the car up from.
The reason it bolts to the firewall is to locate the top of the shock towers fore-and-aft. A brace that just connects between them does a good job of locating them side-to-side only.
The kind of movement that we are talking about is only ~1/4 inch. Not huge, but there is a difference before and after a brace on most cars. Not everybody will be able to tell, but that doesn't mean there is no difference or no point to it.
On both my last Cobras I could feel a pretty significant difference with the STB. I do drive them hard and love corners. Both cars had all the other suspension/chasis mods and after someone on here said they dont make a difference I decided to find my favorite section of road and drove it several times with and without the bar.
What I noticed was the car could change direction quicker and with less steering input. Also on ruff corners was where the biggest difference was felt. When you have the chasis loaded and hit some bumps the outside strut tower can deflect and cause the stering to become irratic. The STB keeps all of those components exactly where they should be so the steering/suspension can do its job.
For only a few bucks more, you will see a huge difference with full length subframe connectors, and even moreso with a vert, as many of those knocks and rattles from the vert going over bumps will disappear
thanks for all of the feedback. i'm going to buy the STB and paint it to match the car...need something to stand out under the hood.
i've owned several sport cars that corner very well, and the vert is a real floater. i like the sub frame idea, but have seen some real hack job installs and I hate to f up my very clean underside.
my next mod will be a set of springs - love the look followed by the sub frame connectors. at least it will launch and corner better until i get my 4:10!