*Foxbody discleaimer* *caged race car disclaimer*
After a STB, I noticed zero improvement in laptimes or feel of the car. On any track I have run.
I very respectfully differ in opinion on this and I see the upper bracing as critical to overall function in a performance application and far more important if you run coil over shocks, where the load of the springs is no longer retained within the lower spring perches.
Later model Mustangs like your very "nice" looking New Edge, had substantial improvements made in terms of chassis stiffness over the earlier Fox models, especially in the front fender well, upper bearing plate areas, but Ford still spent the time and money to tool up for strut tower bracing on its performance models. That should raise some questions.
The strut towers on said Mustangs are subjected to enormous loads as the car transitions bumps and cornering loads. The strut also carries the loads that maintain the geometry of the steering knuckle, since we don’t carry an upper control arm on our cars.
I have finite modeled several chassis over the years and made many measurements using an active linear scale to measure deflection at different load points. The area in question has revealed movements as great as 2.75” under cornering loads generated by street tires, which states to me that Ford wasn't wasting their money by incorporating stiffening devices in this area on their performance models.
For the 2.3L Mustang, cutting and bending of a strut brace may be required for clearance.
In the image below, you can see a scale attached between the strut towers. This scale feeds data to a laptop which, in turn records changes to chassis geometry. This is truly an import area to consider.
OHC.
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so here’s a rough example below. Without getting into a deep discussion on this, we can see from the picture, how force is applied to the chassis through the lower ball joint, which acts as a fulcrum point to transfer load in the opposite direction to the upper strut mount. When you view the chassis from this viewpoint, you can clearly see that it is like a “C” channel, with the vertical legs of the channel only tied together at the firewall and a paper thin radiator core support. If you let that set in, you might see why I would suggest rigid bracing between the struts.
Good discussion BTW.
