Looks like a good $500 mod for front and rear towers...
Anyone use these in these cars???
Impressions?

Thanks.

 

I have them in my C4. I noticed that I could enter turns at a higher speeds with them. I thought that my car was pretty good at entering turns at 40mph stock, but now I can enter those turns at 60mph. So i guess its a good mod, and with ur suspension, expect much better results

 

Your 996 already has a front strut from the factory. As a matter of fact the Cup cars use the factory piece. Front strut bar is a waste of money, I'm not sure about the rear bar.

 

Thanks Doug...I never looked under the cowling to see if the GT3 had a front strut brace...I will have to check the rear...if there isn't one, perhaps that will be a worthwhile upgrade to add torsional rigidity...

 

Here is a pic of the Techart front strut bar.

 

The 996's have a built in front bar...the aftermarket ones just add a tiny bit more rigidity (probably would never notice). The problem with the rear is for people with the BOSE subs you can't use the subs as the bar goes right there.... For the GT3 it should be fine, but I doubt the carpet would go over the bar thus exposing the ECU at all times (kinda ugly...).
Evan

 

Evan,

Rear bar not a good route to go. Use a roll bar that ties the two tower struts together instead.

 

Bose system? i removed my radio I can't hear anyways due to the Fabspeed bypass pipes. I gotta get in shape so i can fit in those GT3 Recaros

 

I agree...I won't be putting one in...never crossed my mind...
Evan

 

Hmmm, guess I should save my money then...As far as the rear, it appears to be a flat bar so I don't see why the carpet piece would not fit over it?

 

Gentlemen,
I have to pull out my structural engineering card here. Buckle up because here goes my controversial statement. Front and/or rear strut braces on a 996 car do not have any purpose other than profit for the manufacturer and vendor and a wallet hit to the purchaser.
Front:
The 996 body configuration in the front of the car has a bulkhead that crosses the car essentially in line with the strut towers. This bulkhead is comprised of the battery compartment/trunk divider in addition to the floor beneath the battery. As is the way with all structural design, forces follow the path of stiffest resistance. Without getting into the nitty gritty, unless you would like me to, it has to do with stress and strain relationships, relative stiffness and strain compatibility. The front bulkhead, as stiff as it is and positioned as close as it is to the strut towers, is much more inherently stiff than any strut brace (rod) could ever be. The load will simply not get into the strut brace.

Rear:
The same thing applies in the rear of the car. The entire strut top is braced by the sheet metal box that is in the vicinity of the ECU (beneath, behind and in front of it). Again, the factory body is far stiffer than a single bar could ever be.

They work in certain cases:
The 996 body design is a marked improvement over previous generations due to this fact alone. The old front struts were essentially unbraced in the trunk compartment. This lended itself well to the addition of strut bars and braces. Camber Meister made a nice design in the past for the old 911's in that they had an extra diagonal from the top of one front strut to the bottom of the opposing strut that actually mimicked the as-yet unseen 996 bulhead diaphragm!!!

Torsional Stiffness:
A common misbelief with these strut braces is that they add torsional stiffness to the car. While it may be argued that they add some degree, they are wholly not good for that purpose nor very effective either. Torsional stiffness of the car is enhanced in one of two common ways. The stiffening of the sway bars RELATIVE TO EACH OTHER!! and/or the addition of a cross braced roll bar that attaches at the rear strut tops.....as Chad has explained. They acheive torsional rigidity increases in two different manners, but nonetheless, they are both effective.
The cross braced (in the diagonal plane from the main hoop bar down to the strut tops as in the Das Sport bars) roll bars add torsional stiffness in an inefficient way but effective nonetheless. The most torsionally stiff structural element is a closed tube. The outer sheetmetal of the factory car body mimics this and is inherently good at it. As ridiculous as it sounds, a more efficient way of making the body more torsionally stiff would be to weld the doors shut, and weld steel over the windows.....effectively making a closed tube. Well, you do have to drive the thing, so THAT would not be a viable option!!!!

 

Great analysis, Ken. Every sports car I've had prior to this Turbo, I've gotten braces of sorts. While I don't have your expertise in structural engineering (though I've taken many engineering courses), one look at the front of our Turbo told me that it'd probably be unnessary to install one.

Not only does the battery compartment area essentially "close the box" at the top, the factory piece ties the upper strut mounts to the firewall quite nicely. I wasn't sure about the rear though, but your analysis ties it all together (no pun intended).

On some cars, you can actually tell when a brace is in place or not during turn-in. It'd be interesting to see in a blind test of trials (bar in vs. bar out), how many times somebody could correctly identify it. My guess is about 50% success.

 

Thanks Ken!!! That was the reason for my call last night. I will look to other avenues for money expenditures...