ACK! need source for strut tower brace

[Larry C Leung]

Tess,

Within limits it is possible to street drive a car with psuedo track
alignments, if you are willing to accept:

1) uneven street tire wear
2) frequent (maybe every 2K miles) to over come the inside front tire
wear (BTDT)

Depending upon the tire, you may or may not be able to get sufficient
track wear with alignments between 1 - 1.5 negative camber (it won't be
great, but it may be sufficient). The other things to do are as you
suggest or have done, UrQ strut bearings, lowering springs, rear sway,
and if you up the stiffness of the rear sway, front sway. 

Believe it or not, a front sway bar may help these heaving beasts (as in
roll) despite everything you may have read in suspension set-up books.
The problem with VAG products is roll and struts, the roll is so extreme
that the tires don't remain anywhere near perpendicular to the road,
hence the extreme wear of the outer shoulders. The front bar (or more
rear bar, as long as both rear tires remain in contact with the ground,
otherwise you will have to lock the rear diff) will help reduce the roll
to a more managable rate, hence, allowing even the overworked front tires
to work appropriately and surprisingly REDUCING understeer, quite the
opposite of what the books say. 

Here's the catch. The books pretty well assumed reasonable function of
the front suspension, which is possible even with a rolling double
wishbone car. Struts aren't capable of much (any in the case of most
street cars) roll camber compensation, so with strut cars, the key to
properly functioning front tires is to reduce roll first using any
combination of bars, THEN adjust the balance with a rear bar. Just to
clarify further, I used this principle on my SCCA Stock class VAG car to
improve lap times by over ~0.8 seconds on a 59 second course. Exact
details are omitted due to the fact I still plan on racing the car once
the roof is returned to it's previous condition.

So, in addition to the above:

3) Add a front sway bar to reduce the total roll of the car (and YES it
WILL work the outside front harder, but at least it will be pointing in
the right direction relative to the ground so it CAN work)
4) balance out the car with the rear sway, stiffen according to taste,
stability and ability to transition.

As for the strut bar, it will help alot. Perhaps the Bernie Brace design,
availible on Chris Miller's site may help you design one for your car.
Too bad Blau doesn't have them anymore. 

HTH,

LL - NY


On Mon, 16 Jul 2001 13:41:45 -0700 (PDT) Tessie McMillan
<tessmc at drizzle.com> writes:
><panic mode>Blaufergnugen no longer has a source for the strut tower 
>brace
>for my 1988 80 Quattro. ! ! !</panic mode>
>
>After reading and sifting through the TON of valuable responses I got 
>on
>my Yo' Mama tires thread and strut tower brace thread, I am confident 
>that
>where I want to start is by replacing the front strut mounts with the
>urQ-type rigid ones, and to add a strut tower brace. Unfortunately, 
>Blau
>-- whom I've been ordering from successfully now for a few months -- 
>no
>longer has this brace for my car. What to do? Where else can I go?
>
>To the folks who wrote me privately and advised that I check out my 
>car's
>suspension dynamics before throwing money at it, I wanted to reassure 
>you
>and say I'm not doing this willy-nilly. When I had my car lowered, I 
>had
>the dynamics checked out, but for street driving. My alignment was 
>done by
>our biggest local Porsche tuner, and I trust them. It is also true 
>that
>anyone driving at our local track (SIR) will encounter uneven tire 
>wear
>because of the track configuration and elevation change. In fact, the 
>911
>I used to drive was like this. It is just that my tire wear is *more
>pronounced*, and I think I can attribute that to the heaviness of the
>front end and the compliance of my suspension set-up.
>
>When I was looking at my tires for wear, I realized I was looking 
>across
>the tread but getting more excited by the fact that I had wear onto 
>the
>sidewall. I had my "street tire" thinking cap on, and not my "track 
>tire"
>thinking cap on. I was thinking totally in terms of pressure; it did 
>not
>dawn on me that camber or other alignment issues could create uneven 
>tire
>wear. Because, of course, my car had been sorted out. (uh, but for the
>*street* and I think that's an important point for this car.)
>
>As to whether I'm going to be able to dial in negative camber and 
>still
>drive my car on the street is debatable. I think it was Jeff who wrote 
>me
>to explain how I could use the 4000Q lower control arm and adjust the
>camber myself when I switch from street wheels to track wheels. But I 
>have
>to admit, not having anyone to show me that process and not ever 
>having
>seen a camber adjustment performed, I don't think I'll be able to 
>figure
>that out on my own. So I'm going to start with the tops of the struts
>first, and see how that affects my tire wear and overall car 
>performance.
>Then we'll see about dialling in more negative camber (different lower
>control arm? Delrin bushings -- you guys want to discuss this? go 
>right
>ahead!)
>
>Again: any sources on a strut tower brace for an '88 80 Quattro? This 
>is
>where I want to start.
>
>Thanks again! You guys really rock -- the info I've gotten has been 
>just
>awesome. Jätte kul!
>
>Tess
>in Seattle, WA, U.S.A.
>
>
>
>
>