How many of you are using fender braces on your cars, and if you are not have you ever thought about them in any kind of detail? What are some of your opinions on them? I might make myself a set if they would be worth it, but just because I like to build stuff. I am looking for more a benefit to handling opposed to the extra parts added to my car just for the hell of it.

 

If you are competing, make sure you have read and understand whatever ruleset you'll be using.

There must be <u>some</u>thing to the idea, because a lot of rulesets outlaw fender braces and other chassis stiffening braces.

It has been argued about in ITR Forum for a few years, and never settled.

Subjectively, a lot of people say their ITR feel better with the braces, but it does not seem to translate to lower lap times. I guess if your car feels better, you might tend to drive it faster or better, but nobody's been able to prove that to our satisfaction over there, yet.

 

Rules prohibit them because there is zero distance between "fender brace" and "tubular subframe."

K

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Knestis &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Rules prohibit them because there is zero distance between "fender brace" and "tubular subframe."</TD></TR></TABLE>

If the piece we're discussing is similar to one I've seen for the 240SX, it'd be simple to define the fender brace in a way that didn't allow front-halfing the car. It's a bolt-on device with no more than three attachment points.

...but I don't really see any reason to bother defining it, it's neither a common part nor an especially useful one.

 

Fender braces definitely help stiffen up the front end on the S13s (240sx) that I have driven, although I am not sure if it is actually permitted by the SCCA.

 

I have seen alot of talk about them doing this, or doing that, but never any hard proof or majority rule even. I just like to fab. stuff and got that idea in my head and figured I would give it a try. I only race auto-x now and am pretty high in the classing already but if need be I would have no problem with removing them due to rules.