does anyone have one of these?

if so has it made any difference and how hard is it to fit?

There was a post up about a year ago with pics where a really nice guy (forget his name, I'm going senile fast!) made his own.

Looked pretty easy to fit - pull carpet away, fit brackets each side, cut a little hole in carpet over bracket and screw in your bar. Think it rates a Haynes one-spanner level of difficulty.

Hoping to be able to get one of these in the new year - anything that stiffens up the 'squareness' of parallel wheels to each other can't be bad at all!

HTH

Bas

£90 is quite expensive isnt it. for a metal tube.

I made one years ago for a MK2 Golf from a section of tube and two exhaust clamps.

Can anyone tell me how they help?

Since the rear beam doesn't rely on the rear dampers for keeping it in line, and the dampers are mounted using huge soft rubber bushes...exactly how does bracing the rear damper towers improve things?

It doesn't...

I'm confused...surely it's only a bit of bling that lightens your wallet but serves no useful function at all?

It doesn't...

Actually it does... to what extent of course depends on well designed and manufactured the bodyshell is.

The rear dampers are mounted solidly on the upper mounting, no rubber bushes there.

The fact remains that the rear beam is only prevented from sidwards motion by the mount to the bodyshell...not by the dampers.

Since there is no camber change possible at the rear, since it's a fixed torsion beam...bracing the rear damper towers does nothing, as far as I can tell.

You can move the dampers about by hand...so bracing the towers isn't going to change that.

I'm still to be convinced that there is again to be had. Enlighten me?

I can see how a front strut brace works...it prevents changes in camber under heavy cornering loads...but this 'rear strut brace'?

What's it bracing, and why?

The rear 'struts' (which they aren't really) can flex about as much as they like within the confines of the bodyshell and it'll make no difference to the way the rear beam behaves.

Making the bodyshell stiffer may be the aim...but even then, the gains will be minimal....and you wouldn't market it as a 'rear strut brace', would you?