strut brace

[Reaper]

reakon it would do anything for a wagon? The extra weight + higher center of gravity gives it a fair bit of roll...

A strut brace doesn't stop body roll as such. It is supposed to stop movement in the chassis - particularly 1 strut tower moving in relation to the others.

Just thinking thru the rear..... I suspect a brace would have very minimal effect there either. All that is in the rear wheel towers are shock absorbers but they have no effect on rear wheel geometry (unlike the location of the front mcpherson strut). Flex in the floor pan will have some effect but movement in suspension bushes (and the like) will be far more on a street car. On a Commodore the IRS cradle is a fairly hefty self contained thing so movement there would be minimal.

On a live axle car the "cradle" is the rear floor pan so movement would have some effect. Which way is it likely to move??? (assuming you remove the metal behind the rear seat) I doubt that it will move in shear (like an accordian). It could bow up or down causing a few mm movement in the link arms relative to one another (once again the bushes probably have way more movement than this already). A simple brace between the shock mounts in the rear would have little or no effect. You could truss it with a vertical bar arrangement to triangulate the whole area but to notice any difference you would need to go to a solid suspension bush setup thru the car which would be *very* un-comfortable on the street. Further more you would be a highly capable driver who probably wouldn't need to be asking those sorts of questions.

Reaper

 

[andyman]

You don't actually state what kind of car your 'mate' has. Presuming a commodore, but what year?
I know this will cheese a lot of people off, but if someone bolts a 'performance' part on, sometimes the mind will think what it wants to in regards to its' actual 'benefits'.....i know the bulkhead and parcel shelf (that used to be) in my VT are major structural supports in the shell, if these were flexing, thats a bit of a worry....i could see a benefit in a wagon maybe, but thats about it.

its a 95 vs sedan, so not the strongest of bodies, he just made it cause we he was bored at work one day and thought to give it a go

 

[andyman]

Also you can't fit the factory sway bar on many vt-vz's until you jack them up from the K frame which spreads the strut towers out far enough that you can fit the bar. I was told by a guy that fitted one this gains several mm 5? maybe it was.

And Minux, offroad rc cars with alloy chassis are allways faster around a track than carbon cars bit of flex can sometimes help

mine was a good push, shove sort of fit

 

[danja]

Most shops I've been too will quote you extra for the front sway bar on these cars, because of the extra labour involved in fitment.