Originally Posted by
Speyederjedi
Tony,
A question on these arm braces. So in addition to taking the "flex" out of the control arms and changing the ride height a bit are these supports helping create more mechanical grip under steering? My Cobra GT seems to have plenty of control under steering and I would be interested to see what the feel of the car is with the braces. This last weekend at Al's Hobby here in San Antonio I was running about .50 secs. a lap slower on my Cobra GT than my Xray NT1 which is pretty damn good, but if I can cut that even closer that would be fanatstic!!!
Regards,
D
To answer your question simply, Yes they give the car more mechanical grip while steerring but also in straight line under power.
While driving the original arms flex easily vertically in both directions. Especially in a large sweeping turn the arm is under pressure from the counter weight transfer of the car, pressure from shock and gravity. The flex creates a variable in your steerring. The braces simply eliminates that variable, making the arms rigid as they are in a full size race car. This in turn results in having more precise steering. Now remember the braces only eliminates the car, not the other variables that occur during racing such as track surface, your setup, ture compound etc.
Under hard power in acceleration I noticed my wheels would hop both front and rear at times. The arms flex resulted in the power not being transferred to the ground efficiently. The braces help keep you power train/drive line more centered. The definitely helped here as well, I felt the car have a little more low end snap to it.
The biggest benefits to me while working with Marcus "MantisWorx" the designer and manufacture of the LRP braces is that it allows your car to hold and maintain your setup.
What I mean is by eliminating the flex variable, my camber, ride height and droop settings don't change as often as they did before.
Also mentioned that the braces change the ride height, this is not TRUE. The braces are mounted under neath the original arms and once mounted they sit pretty much centerline with the chassis. The also have the cut out so they do not interfere with the droop screws. Also ride height is checked from the chassis not the arms.
I have a few ask what they weigh, they are 80-85grams with hardware installed. The weight is spread out and is all as low and as close to the ground as it can be.
Most Serpents were or are under wieght to meet most events 3500gram empty weight minium. So this is not an issue.