formul8!!

Those look very trick and pretty high quality.

I might want some in the spring. My mounts are original and don't bind, but want to upgrade.

Thanks!

Hunter Motorsports

We do plan on doing another production run in the new year. There are some issues to sort out with finnish quality first - so there is a bit of R&D underway - but stay tuned. There will be more. The interest seems to be there - so why not.

ebmiller88

iTrader: (7)

Hey Karl. Here's a question...any way of incorporating a strut tower brace into the mounts? Maybe run it mount to mount? I just had a thought...maybe weld a couple tabs onto each mount and then fab a rod ended brace to fit between them???


Hmmm...

Ed

formul8!!

HMS, thanks for your reply! I'll be watching for the next batch in the springtime!


Ed,

You wouldn't be able to do that because the strut mounts adjust and the side to side loads would always be throwing the strut angle off. It needs to be securely mounted to the strut tower for the brace to work properly.

AFreaknGoodTme

I beg to differ, My feeling is they would support eachother right at the point of flex (top of the strut). When force is exerted on one side in a corner, the speader bar conenection from the opposite side mount would increase strength to the mount holding most of the cornering load. The spreader bar (aka-STB) could be made adjustalbe just like the a sperial rod-end panhard bar. Imagine how easy it would make life in adjusting camber, You could lock one side down and pull or push the other side into place via adjusting the spreader bar, then just bump foward or back the caster setting into place and your set.

Great idea Ed.

Lets go a step further, You could even run triangular rods from the mounts to the firewall to set and maintain caster settings also. Were talking an $$$ setup though. Don't know how many would spend that kind of cash, I certainly would resale my existing HMS mounts an purchase a setup like that

Edit: How nice this setup would be for weekend racers that don't want to drive around daily with -2 1/2 to -3* camber. You could install this setup to daily driving alignment specs, then measure the three rod lengths from bolt to bolt. Then have the alignment mechanic reset everything to racing specs and again measure those setting. One could then drive the car to the autocross track, pop the hood, loosen the strut mount bolts slightly, shorten the rod lengths to the race specs, retighten everything and go racing.The triangular rods would recenter the camber setting each time so you would not end up with like +2* on one side and -2* on the other.

formul8!!

I would take some serious beefing up of the mount to be able to hanldle both the strut load and the chassis load.

Why would you want to mount a chassis load bearing part to a bolt on part that controls the suspension? The way current STB's mount to the chassis/strut tower is much more stable and that is the part you want controlled, not the strut mount itself.

Sounds cool on paper, but it won't work in real testing.

AFreaknGoodTme

Please read my edit above.

Most race cars currently have spreader bars that attach this way to the upper a-arms. I think the poin you my be missing is that the strut is what bears the load, not the fender. When the strut puts force on the strut mount, the strut mount is the part recieving stress and with the current design (3 bolts to the fender) does not slip. what a STB or spreader bar does is keeps the top strut mount locations from flexing in towards eachother under hard loads thus causing the inner and outer tire contact patches to change camber and lose traction. Its the mounts that need to stay rigid for alignment purposes, not the inner fenders.

AFreaknGoodTme

I have to run for now, I'll draw up a concept and submit it later.

Hunter Motorsports

Do you guys really want these mounts to be that expensive???

I have no plans of incorporating a strut brace into these mounts. That just gets way too complicated.. Then - which car do you design it for?? TPI - carb - TBI - Superram??? There is no way to make one system to fit all these cars... so it won't happen.

The design will be the same as they are now. Strut tower braces are very effective when bolted to the tower - not the mount. However the idea does have mertit, and the concept would work.

AFreaknGoodTme

Sorry Mr. HMS, I was just dreaming a little daydream, but I did acknowledge somewhere up above that I know this would be extremely costly to do. You have a excellent point about the different engine clearences involve and the gains would not be any greater than the standard STB's availible now. I was just thinking how nice to have the adjustable street-to-race settings with a few rotations of some brace rods. I did this with my Vette for years in auto-x with just a tape measure and a wrench in the rear and shims and a wrench in the front. Took me about 20 mins.

alloy

iTrader: (16)

After I read this thread, I've been thinking about the strut tower brace idea being attached to the strut towers themselves. Then a few days ago I got my first issue of Grass Roots Motorpsorts. In looking at the ads in the back I see strut tower braces that bolt either over or under the strut tower mount on **** grinders. In looking at the strut towers on 3rd gen cars in the boneyard, I've noticed that the bolts that mount the strut tower come up from the bottom and are mounted in a type of "C" shaped support that is removable. It would be an easy task to put bigger and longer bolts in this support to work with the added height of a mounting plate for a stb brace.

If a stb were made that bolted to the same bolts as the strut towers do, then it would seem that this would give you the maximum support available right where it is needed most. The mounting holes for the strut tower are slotted for caster adjustment, and the strut tower mount itself that has the slotted holes for adjustment. So my idea would be to put either rod ends of clevis ends on the strut bar, and after the car is aligned then you would simply adjust out the rod ends to match the holes in the strut tower brace mounting plates.

I own a machine shop and it would be an easy task for me to cnc these mounting plates out. But before I do, I would like input from others with more knowledge and experience in this area.

Thanks-Dan