Just had my car on the ramp to check it out and put the rarb onto the stiffest setting and just thought I fitted the strut brace and rarb at the same time and obviously the rarb makes a difference but I personally don't think the strut brace has. Is it because the effects of the rarb overpowers the strut brace or do they not really make a difference?

Made no difference for me but blinged up engine bay lol

It just looks cool when i sit with my bonnet open and neons switched on outside Asda on a Friday night

That's the only positive I can see is that it looks good

Excess weight lol

Marmite, some swear it makes a difference, others just swear at having spent the money....

 

My personal belief is that if you're looking for extra pointiness, having gone to some lengths already,  (stiffer/lower/bushes etc) then you might notice a difference.

 

On a similar note but for different reasons...

 

Running Rainsports up front with older conti 1s on the back made for too-lairy handling in very wet weather, so I switched them front to back to front... (Also running eibachs and a Jabba RARB).

Result was a far pointier front end as the contis had the stiffer sidewalls and a slightly movable arse end with far more trustworthy grip in pretty much all conditions.

I've already got coilovers on it. I've never had a strut brace before as I always thought they were a waste of money but I got it with the rarb for £40 so not too fussed it does sweet FA but if I'd paid £60 for it I'd be abit narked

Edited 25 August, 201312 yr by Kyle_vrs

I echo all the above,

But I thought it steadied the front end of the car up a little under very heavy braking in a straight line.

(You know, like when you suddenly spot the speed camera and have to scrub a good 50mph off

very quickly) Before the strut brace I found a similar manouvre made the front of the car squirm a 

bit. Brace seemed to cure it. Looks good in the engine bay too.

But I think ride is compromised too much and it makes the front end crashy, particularly with harder

than standard suspension. When I took mine off and just ran the car with the rarb and the

sports shocks and springs it was much better tbh.    

I echo all the above,

But I thought it steadied the front end of the car up a little under very heavy braking in a straight line.

(You know, like when you suddenly spot the speed camera and have to scrub a good 50mph off

very quickly) Before the strut brace I found a similar manouvre made the front of the car squirm a

bit. Brace seemed to cure it. Looks good in the engine bay too.

But I think ride is compromised too much and it makes the front end crashy, particularly with harder

than standard suspension. When I took mine off and just ran the car with the rarb and the

sports shocks and springs it was much better tbh.

I can't say I'm very hard on the brakes anyway so can't comment on that. I've not noticed it being more crashy, I've not noticed anything that's why I thought I'd ask if others have. Surely a rigid bar between the struts should of improved something though...

Not if its an already sturdy setup.

I found that under aggressive acceleration and hard braking it helped. Didn't think it did much in cornering really.

Its one of those things i cant put my finger on like an hd tv. Didnt notice a difference when i first got it if im honest i bought it for look. However when its not on it does seem different. Lol

I might take it off and see if it makes a difference. I have noticed since I did my new top strut bearings and fitted it my brake judder has come back, it wouldn't be down to this would it??

Having used a std Fabia on a couple of endurance rallies and seen first hand how far the strut tops moved when worked hard I woundn't consider driving around with stiff lowered suspension without some form of strut brace.

Ok the last event was rough but when we measured the shell afterwards the struts were 45mm closer together on the engine bay, bonnet was rubbing on the wings and there was a gap either side where the panels had moved, it all went back into place with a portapower easily enough but will be seam welded and braced in future now.

None of the available strut braces are very good from a high strength point of view (I'll make my own ta) but they are going to help cut down on a bit of flex with stiffer suspension and being driven harder etc whether you would actually notice a difference while driving I don't know but it will help the car massively. 

That's does make a lot of sense actually, although I don't really drive my car hard I suppose it's better to have it on the car than not

I noticed steering was lighter?

Poss more direct in the corners?

Most likely worse on our average roads, on a track IMO it will make a small difference.

 

You stiffening up the suspension thus it will be more crashy, bouncy on 'most' of our average roads.

I noticed a difference, car felt more keen to turn into a corner, its a small difference but noticeable, rarb makes a big difference which is probably why you don't notice the strutbrace so much..