Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Pics and Videos HPP Sturt Tower Brace

Ed,

If that guy is correct, then under certain conditions, the bar is under tension, although the movement of the towers would be very slight.

Other people on this board, though, who are much smarter than me in this area, have said that probably the bar experiences "less compression" at some times than at others. The article in question, which I used to place a lot of stock in, relates only third-party info about "someone" who actually hooked up a strain guage and got a tension reading.

I lean, now, toward believing the guys on this board, who do this stuff for a living. Only way to really know, though, is to get a strain guage.

Good link Ed.

Off to check my tack welds in the back :rolleyes:

Cause, you know, the contour weighs 2851 pds, and at 1G, with 50/50 weight transfer, thats a tension of 347 pds on those tack welds...

But since I'm lucky to get .85Gs with the winter tires, it can wait till spring

BTW, it all makes sense. When you corner, you have the tendency to lift the rear inside wheel. Something must keep it up from falling back to the ground. Why not some tension in the rear strut bar?

Front is still a little foggy for me though...

2 questions,is there more improvment with back stb or front?and did you lift the car off the ground during the install?

I would say there should be equal improvement from both. I didn't have to lift the car to install it.

Does anyone know if anybody makes a bar like that, but contours around the back seats (rather than just going straight across). I was just wondering because the rear seats don't fold down very far as it is, if I had a bar in the way, it would pretty much make my rear fold down seats useless I would think (as far as the opening is concerned). I saw the bars that are used between the front struts are curved, couldn't the one used in the trunk be curved as well?

I did a quick photochop to Lee's picture to explain kind of what I mean. (I took no consideration into exact angles or the tightening mechanism - just trying to show the concept)
My picture

Anyway, does anybody make something like this? I haven't been able to find any pictures.

J-Lab made a rear bar from a Mazda 323 front bar:

http://www.contour.org/forums/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=40;t=001600

Isn' the SHO Shop rear strut tower brace contoured? (I'm too lazy to check their web page to look.) Isn't that pathetic?

SHO Shop is not bent. It's straight. Mine is just easily removable.

It takes all of 4 full turns to get it out of the way. Talk about lazy...

If your going to put stuff back there and need the room chances are you wouldn't be driving fast and cornering hard in the first place.

I have a system back there and I would have to rebuild my box to house the bar. Thats the only problem I have with it.