Front and Rear Towers Braces

[antetr95]

Does anyone have any of these installed? What impressions do you have? Is it worth getting? Is there a noticable improvement in handling? What's the best towers to get?

[mrbanshee]

I have the Active Autowerke front strut bar. What I noticed was that during heavy cornering I had a faster turn-in. It is worth it to get a strut bar if you are involved in track racing and are looking for increase chassis stiffness.
What a strut bar does is stiffen the shock tower from flexing. This flex makes the suspension less effective and creates more play in the suspension. The more flex you have, the less response you will have in the suspension.
If you installing both front and rear strut bars it will help stiffen the entire car. By intalling only a front strut bar in some cases can create more understeer. Vise versa, intalling only a rear strut bar will create more oversteer. This works off the principle of stiffening the rear suspension forceing the tires to the ground more. Thus helping to break the tires lose easier. This is used by drifters and race drivers.
When looking to get a strut bar for performance reasons make sure that the strut bar is fully attached to all the shock tower mounts. Also, make sure the bar is straight and that it is the proper length to fit across the shock towers. As for the type of metal, as long as it is stiff and rigid it will be fine.
Some of the companies out there are Racing Dynamics, Active Autowerke, AC schnitzer, Hamann, BMW Motorsports, Hartge and I believe HMS motorsports.
If you have any more questions feel free to e-mail me at Mrbanshee@yahoo.com. God Bless, Dave.

[MarvelPhx]

I just picked up the new Strong-Strut from www.strong-strut.com (redir.php?dest=www.strong-strut.com) and I really like how well it blends in with the engine bay. It looks almost factory. I will have pictures and a review up soon.

In reality, as long as a strut tower brace connects the towers and doesn't bend, all of them perform similiarly. The biggest differences are going to be looks, weight, and price.