What you can see her, is a particularly noble aluminium component, which spans the in-line six-cylinder. In addition, it is supported by two steel tubes, which lead to the center of the firewall, forming a triangle. Customary, welded tubing would achieve the same result, except that it would be much heavier.
When is a strut bar needed? First of all, one must have a look at the distribution of the forces. It is only found in vehicles on the front suspension struts, very seldom also in the rear. A stipulation is, that there are so-called 'domes' on the right and left hand side. The strain and forces from the suspension are taken up by the strut bar. They are basically, reinforced side-plates, which because of the steering, have the shape of a dome, similar to large loudspeakers. They have to cope with considerable impact forces and, above all things, also permanent vibrations. In earlier vehicles, after a long period of use, cracks could appear along the reinforcing, running from the top to the bottom.
Indeed, the strut bar doesn't prevent this happening, at most, it reduces the vibrations a a little. If however, you look a little closer at a spring strut, you'll discover that it is inclined, which is due to the caster and camber of the steered wheels. If one assumes that a harder spring and damping has been installed, the strut bar can be helpful. For normally sprung and damped vehicles the precautions taken by the manufacturer are sufficient. These precautions are increasing more and more, since the demands for overall stiffness and particularly in the chassis are ever growing.
By the way, rear strut bars should only be mounted when extreme conditions prevail, since, as a rule, due to the continuous floor and the C-pillars which go right up to the roof, the coachwork here is even more stable. If you would like to see what the naked frame of a car-body looks like, then click here . 11/11