I was thinking about getting a front strut bar for my lude, but i was wondering if it would give the car more understeer/oversteer.

 

it's not really gonna do much of anything, so i wouldn't worry about it.

 

When I added mine it seemed to promote a little more understeer.... but other suspension components come into play(including tires) sooooo it is impossible to say how your car will react. In my eyes, eliminated bodyroll is important so a strut brace makes sense.

With 4WS and a strut brace, my lude seems to corner very well. The Last canyon run I made was in wet conditions and I did fine. The prelude in front of me however, was bone stock and OVER (not understeered) but oversteered through a turn @ 50mph and scared the bijeezuz out of me. I think it was cause of the tires, but I'm no car genious either sooooo...... sure why not.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by five-0 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">When I added mine it seemed to promote a little more understeer.... but other suspension components come into play(including tires) sooooo it is impossible to say how your car will react. In my eyes, eliminated bodyroll is important so a strut brace makes sense.

With 4WS and a strut brace, my lude seems to corner very well. The Last canyon run I made was in wet conditions and I did fine. The prelude in front of me however, was bone stock and OVER (not understeered) but oversteered through a turn @ 50mph and scared the bijeezuz out of me. I think it was cause of the tires, but I'm no car genious either sooooo...... sure why not. </TD></TR></TABLE>

a strut bar does not reduce body roll. a strut bar is supposed to reduce chassis flex. body roll is a suspension thing, and technically a strut bar isn't a part of the suspension: it's not connected to anything that's suspending something. as far as how much the chassis of a car is deflecting at the firewall at .9 g's--i'm not sure, but i'm guessing it's not that much at all.

oversteer and understeer on a bone stock prelude: it doesn't matter what mods you have on it you can get it to rotate or push as much as you want. ever lift the throttle mid corner or tapped the brake at an apex? yeah the mods can make a car easier to spin or more prone to push, but in the end a spade is still a spade and if you lift/brake at a certain point in a "hard" (hard being a totally relative term to road conditions, tires, what's in your car, etc) corner, the rear end is going to step out.

 

So your basically saying that it is more of an operator malfunction type of thing? Well that makes sense, because the owner of that car was a Prelude newbie. (I should've been in front). He only had it for like a month or something.

Thanks for the intelligent response and please excuse my poor sense of terminoligy. I hope to roadrace some this summer and learn more about the handling charactoristics of my car. Ever since running through the canyons, I have found that to be a better adrenaline rush than running the 1/4. It makes my lude feel special.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by five-0 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Ever since running through the canyons, I have found that to be a better adrenaline rush than running the 1/4. It makes my lude feel special. </TD></TR></TABLE>

Personally I feel there is no greater calling for the prelude than going through a road course of some sort. It's definitely not a drag car...

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by five-0 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">So your basically saying that it is more of an operator malfunction type of thing? Well that makes sense, because the owner of that car was a Prelude newbie. (I should've been in front). He only had it for like a month or something.

Thanks for the intelligent response and please excuse my poor sense of terminoligy. I hope to roadrace some this summer and learn more about the handling charactoristics of my car. Ever since running through the canyons, I have found that to be a better adrenaline rush than running the 1/4. It makes my lude feel special. </TD></TR></TABLE>

yeah it could have been a number of things, but especially with your average driver it's probably a driver issue when someone "loses it."

no problem about the terms, just making sure you have the terminology straight. when it comes to these strut bars there are two distinct camps of people: people who believe in em and those who don't. i happen to think that they're a waste, but that's just my opinion--unfortunately testing whether these things work or not is a very difficult process, and i don't think anyone's actually done it (or actually will).

definitely get out to a track and see what it's like to have great tarmac, corner workers, and a radio/paramedic/corner working system designed to keep you safe and alive--chances are the canyons will feel a lot less exciting when you get out on a track and push the car harder than you ever could (or should) on a public mountain road.