Nice post of the video! Thanks a lot! I favorited it.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! !!!!!:cry::cry::cry::cry::cry::cry:

I had a quick go at hashing together a panoramic of the engine bay

http://img694.imageshack.us/img694/5741/panork.jpg

^ :w00t:

has anybody mentioned how friggin thick that tower strut bar is??? holy crap!

I'm guessing the thicker the bar, the less body roll?

Nothing to do with it. That bar also looks welded to the strut tower, which wouldn't make it to production like that, but it may just be welded to a mounting bracket. Hard to tell though.

It ties the strut towers together and, in theory, transfers loads from one to the other and increases chassis rigidity.

I've never noticed a difference with or without one. We use one on the race car mostly to hold SS oil lines and wiring.

Ya i cant tell either, i tried to find some indication of welds along the strut mounts. All i can see are the bolts from the struts/coilovers.

You know i couldnt tell any difference at all with a strut bar on a NA miata, DA integra, and EK civic. but i felt a world of difference on a S14, FC3S, and 2g eclipse. i Guess it really depends on the car.

I can see what you are talking about WoW with the functional hood vents. But to me it looks like that strut bar attaches to the front of the shock tower. That would be the bolts that we are seeing at the front of the shock tower. However, that would mean that the top of the shock tower is underneath that piece of boxed in bodywork. That would be terrible for anyone hoping to put adjustable dampers on this car, as you would have to take off the fenders everytime.

But from what I'm seeing there's no reason you couldn't lop those big blocks off, and drop the hood and front fenders 2 inches with some kind of aftermarket kit. Maybe one that makes it look like the concept Mk I.

Of course I could be completely wrong and looking at this picture all cross eyed.:iono:

looked again. You can see the three bolts sticking out the top of the strut tower. But sill, it doesn't look like that big boxy hunk of metal on top of the fender is a stressed member. I'd say lose it and make this thing low.

That's weak! From the C&D article that Matador posted, they call it "notchback". :thumbdown: Now the test is seeing if 4 rims w/race rubber, some tools and a floor jack will fit...

Remove flex from front = bias towards understeer

Remove flex from the rear = bias towards oversteer

Playing with both you can get a car fairly neutral, or biased as you prefer. Of course, springs, shocks, and sway bars all interact with chassis bracing too and tweak handling one way or the other.

Most road cars come from the factory biased towards understeer (plow forward in a stright line when trying to turn), which is presumed to be "safer" in an emergency than oversteer (spin out, nose first).

Assuming that bar is pretty stiff, it's presumably there to keep the FT-86 on the track rather than in the fence. Be interesting to see what kind of bracing is in the rear and how stiff the F and R stock sway bars are.

Hopefully stiff enough that I don't have to worry about switching them out for aftermarket parts in a hurry.

Probably 3, but you can only see 2 of the top hat nuts and the strut shaft nut in the picture. You'll be able to adjust it just fine there.

If you lower the fenders you remove space that the wheel and tire can be, so you'd lower the hood and fenders at the expense of multiple inches of potential wheel travel.

Now we've figured out it's a trunk...question now is how the f does it open with them taillights the way they are ...:iono: