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Originally Posted by Arex
So is that why people are getting tower braces? I read that double wishbone is a better design for performance since mcphersons causes tires to have less surface contact? How do tower braces affect daily drivability though? Does it make bumps more harsh?
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Tower braces aren't too expensive, easy to install, and on earlier MacStrut cars that weren't all that rigid they would have helped more. On newer cars, they're more of a mod for NVH improvement - which maybe shouldn't be discounted because a car that "feels" more rigid (because it's not vibrating as much) may allow the driver to feel more comfortable himself about driving it harder than he might otherwise. After all, improved handling is part car development and part "driver mod".
Strut suspensions don't have very good camber recovery in roll (i.e. cornering), and a tower brace ties the two strut tops together. The idea being to make the strut tower on the inside of the corner help out the more heavily loaded outboard tower. Tower displacement - the amount it moves under load - is what a tower brace is intended to equalize, as this helps the more important outboard tire more than it hurts the less important inboard one.
Chances are you'd notice a slightly smoother or solid-feeling ride, mostly because adding this brace changes the vibration characteristics of the car - at least the front end of it. There are many different structural vibration modes in a car's structure, at all different frequencies, and a properly designed brace will chase some of the more annoying ones off to higher frequencies and different locations where they aren't as noticeable.
Norm