front strut bar/tower question
 

has anyone removed the factory stock "V" strut braces and just run a strut tower bar?

just curious on impressions

I wouldn't..considering the strut to firewall braces are there from the factory, they're there for a reason. The engineers would not put a chassis brace in that spot for show on a car where they were trying to shed as much weight as they could to begin with.

Rather than ditch one and get the other, why not run a strut tower bar in addition to the V braces? They will compliment each other if nothing else by triangulating the strut towers to the firewall.

just a random thought i had to see if anyone went to try this out

That would kind of defeat the purpose of adding bracing, in this case, the strut tower bar.

Hotchkiss makes a triangular strut tower brace.

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removed mine to clear turbo setup.

no notiecable difference after removal

http://i1053.photobucket.com/albums/...77E9700740.jpg

Really anything that triangulates is going to be your best bet, rather than deleting. Hotchkis and AEM make a one piece, idk if FT86speedfactory's is one piece or not. I run TBPerformance's strut tower bracing. They're separate pieces but they interlock at the strut towers and the strut to firewall braces are adjustable for preload.

After feeling the difference they make I'll likely never remove any of them.

interesting, this was what i was wondering... do you track ur car?

i was interesting if there was any real difference from using

a) stock
b) strut tower alone
c) triangle bars
d) strut + stock

and see what differences they make while driving

yes! :burnrubber:

http://i320.photobucket.com/albums/n...ps5b572948.jpgI agree with Zach---I'd leave the firewall braces in or add a one piece bar that ties the towers together with the triangulation. I've been making braces for years and made a chromoly one for our BRZ---the material is crazy strong/rigid and fairly light so it has a big impact/noticeable difference vs the 3 pc designs with rodends/bolts that are only really able to control compression/tension...http://i320.photobucket.com/albums/n...ps26cf69ac.jpg

I've seen them replaced with lighter bars but not removed.

How did go with your sheared bolt from installing the strut tower bar?