Quote:
Originally Posted by mrk1
I see where you are coming from with doing complete R&D. However all of those R&D hours will be reflected in the final price so there has to be a balance of data and whats realistic.
Look at how F1 cars are developed, massive budget and mega software. Then once its physically built they still coat it with paint and take it for a spin to see if it actually does what the computer says it will.
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I agree - as I said, I wouldn't expect a finite element analysis or computational fluid dynamics or anything like that from the aftermarket (nearly impossible anyway unless Subaru sold you their models, which they wouldn't do), I'm just wondering if there's any testing that goes into it. Do you fab up a brace, take it for a spin on a test track or an autocross event, and see if it made a measurable improvement, or built one with a $40 strain gauge to tell if the bar is actually seeing any tension or compression during cornering, or is it just "We know enthusiasts buy braces that are visible in the engine bay or that look complicated and impressive and that are easy to bolt on, so we'll just build something and make sure it fits, then sell it". I like the idea of improving my car with braces, I'm just wary of braces that were designed mostly for looks and that were never really tested with the same car, driver, and track with and without the brace to see if it actually made an improvement. I don't think it's "massive R&D" to say that in back to back test, it shaved off a half seconds of time around a course, or that with a strain gauge, it showed that the bar was under a fair amount of compression during hard cornering.