Front Brace

[Reeflodge]

Excuse me for being a bit ignorant but what benefit if any does a Front Brace give the MR2 if its not used for racing?

I take it the the rear is already braced by the cross over bars on top of the engine?

[MannyUK]

I always thought braces were used to increase rigidity in the car (stop it flexing).  Keeping the car flatter on the road thus keeping all tyres in contact with the road for better traction.

Would this benefit the front of the car, i have no idea. sorry  s:) s:)

The top of the engine has braces on for this reason but you can buy a brace which is fitted under the engine also to tighten up the car even more.

[tommyzoom99]

strut braces are designed to link both strut tops together to stop the strut tops flexing about under heavy load giving sharper handling, better turn in etc

on the mr2 the front makes a difference i run a trd brace and felt the difference, on the rear as mentioned they make very little difference if any, as the strut tops are linked by a chunky cross member already.

IMO the front is worth it, the rear is for looks only.

cheers tommy

[shnazzle]

Echoing tommy. Fronts definitely. Rear is annoying.
Mine is coming off because with coilovers I actually find that it does stiffen up the rear just that little bit, causing oversteer.

Or remove the rear roll bar. Haven't decided yet

[Carolyn]

Toyota Racing Development... involved over the years in F1, Le Mans prototypes WRC and many genres of motor sport, are much more than a consumer 'brand'.
They saw fit to produce carefully designed and extremely well made strut braces for the front and rear of the Roadster....
I wonder why?

[shnazzle]

For the rear; because they didn't run coilovers  s:) s:)

[Carolyn]

A 'coilover' (by definition) is a spring with a shock-absorber inside, which is what the standard struts on a roadster are (as opposed to separate springs and shocks).  I suspect you are running adjustable coilovers, which allow you to play with ride height and damping.  Those adjustments are where one should be looking to deal with over-steer.
Sorry to be so blunt,
 m https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coilover m

[shnazzle]

Don't you start!! You know what we mean by "coilovers".

Yes all cars have coilovers, but I think the term is sufficiently known on "the streets" ad adjustable coilovers.

[MR TWO]

Or remove the rear roll bar. Haven't decided yet

Take it off!

[shnazzle]

Experience? Or just want to see what happens?  s:) s:)  

When I first got the COILOVERS on I actually ran without a rear anti-roll bar. Simply because my droplinks hadn't arrived.
I thought it drove quite nicely actually.

[MR TWO]

I dont have the rear anti roll bar on my car.  The back has never slid out. Though there are a few other mods on the car so its not possible to say its entirely down to this.

My previous MrS was standard, and the back end often decided to wander about...

Read this thread?  l viewtopic.php?f=7&t=26250&p=384322#p384322 l

[shnazzle]

I had not. Interesting posts indeed.

[Reeflodge]

Now I'm very confused, I just have a stock Mr2 and was thinking of making some improvements a front brace being one of them, but now after reading some of the above comments I'm not sure its worth it.
Unless I'm missing something!

[MR TWO]

I had not. Interesting posts indeed.

Yeah I thought so too.  The last post is by the guy who originally owned my car!

[MR TWO]

Now I'm very confused, I just have a stock Mr2 and was thinking of making some improvements a front brace being one of them, but now after reading some of the above comments I'm not sure its worth it.
Unless I'm missing something!

I have a few mods on my car so its hard for me to give a definitive opinion on the benefits a front strut brace in isolation. However, I have driven my car without it and couldn't really say there was any noticeable difference.  That said, I put it back on!

If you can find a cheap one, no harm done and on the rare occasion that you lift the frunk, it looks cool.

[Reeflodge]

Does it go under the plastic cover or over the top?
If it goes over the top surely you would need to cut holes in the cover?

[Bongo]

Does it go under the plastic cover or over the top?
If it goes over the top surely you would need to cut holes in the cover?

You need to cut holes or remove the cover.

[Reeflodge]

Anyone got one for sale?

[Bongo]

I have a full set of TRD braces for sale, although probably won't be able to do anything with them/may not be on here much until the new year.

[Reeflodge]

Only want the front one.

[brettfield999]

Ooohhh I've got one for sale too hehe! Not trying to overstep bongo. Front and rear TRD

[lamcote]

Well now, I would agree with Shnazzle. I would say the standard car has strut suspension, not coilover suspension. The spring on the standard suspension is actually wound round the piston rod, not the damper itself. On real coilovers the spring seat is typically set much lower down the unit so the coil spring is actually wound round the damper body (where the damping actually takes place) as well as the rod.

That must be a valid distinction otherwise the car manufacturers' marketing guys would have been calling strut suspension coilovers for years.

Discuss...

Happy Xmas!!

[shnazzle]

Need a bigger spoon for that stirring?  s:) s:)  haha
But, actually interesting information. Although I didn't see much difference between them. Stock one was just much bigger  s:) s:)

I'm going to see if I have some time to remove the rear ARB next week.
But the front's definitely staying.

I got one for a very good price, but I wanted to save up for a nice Ultra Racing one, or TRD. But I figured, 50 quid for front and rear braces was too much of a steal so figured I could try it out first and if I liked it, then save up for a nice shiny brace.

So, I guess I'll be saving up for a nice shiny front brace at some point. Although, the one I have seems to do just fine.

[lamcote]

I thought people might need something to discuss/think about over the Christmas break!!

[lamcote]

Now that even I have been sucked in to taking this mildly seriously myself... I have been bothered to look up the definition of a strut and I suspect that the "coilovers" that are for sale for our car should actually be called struts, at least at the front??