Seeing as how the standard Polo is pretty evil handling, are strut braces (front and rear) worth fitting?

Can anyone WHO HAS ACTUALLY FITTED THEM tell me if there is a noticeable difference when driving hard?

i had an upper front brace - didnt notice anything - the fact it was alloy and had a bend in it meant it probibly was always going to do very little

Edited 2 February, 201214 yr by youngprodigys

I've fitted

a rear strut brace

a lower front brace above arb

and lower brace between bottom arms.

all steel

The lower front above arb and rear made the most difference

and I'm sure the bottom arm brace is doing something but not so noticeable after the other two have been fitted

i have a rear brace for sale £45 posted, its painted and ready to fit.

also have a front lower by arb, needs 20 seconds welding and painting.

pm

linky

my Brace

Edited 2 February, 201214 yr by mini_mayhem

Upper fronts do nothing - assume because the bulkhead braces that bit?

Lower front makes a difference, I've heard. Hence why subframes are so popular.

Also lower front brace bar (between the anti roll bar mounts) makes a difference.

Rear strut brace seems to have tightened things up a bit but tbh I've not really done any track days since fitting it to say for sure.

Edited 2 February, 201214 yr by Alex

To clarify though, by 'rear brace bar' I mean one that connects the two shock towers, not the shocks themselves:

I don't see the merit in the braces at the rear that connect the shocks. All of the bending force then goes through the shocks, with the potential to bend them out of shape. Or, since they have rubber bushes, they cause movement at the bottom. The one pictured above is the only rear sort I'd consider. Also, upper fronts will do next to fuck all if they are bent. Any compression force large enough to flex a chassis is more that enough to bend as already bent piece of metal. If they were straigt however, they may do more.

mine sits between the towers, just use the shocks as a fixing point, so bolt in/ bolt out. no welding needed.

I'm welding one between the towers at the rear then, might just see what happens with a lower front....

Not so much on a mk2, but on a mk3, pretty much the best thing you can do to the car is put a brace like a Ged bar between the ARB mounts.

been considering a brace for the 2 lower arm mounts..all the ones I've seen have slotted holes which kinda makes no sense if it slops about

anyone reccomend one that fits and isnt slotted ...or are the ebay pics wrong

A clio rear ARB (the rare-ish bolt-on type) is the perfect width to bolt to the front chassis legs by the radiator on an 86c, just requiring one piece each end to be cut off the Clio bar so it can be welded into place, or bolted if you weld in threads (possibly nut/bolted if you drill access holes in the wheel housing).

Haven't fitted my one simply because i have other plans regarding the front suspension of my pre-facelift model, and especially given that the radiator is more of an issue in this shape car.

Rear brace is pointless because the twist beam takes all the side loading forces - the turrets are only for vertical movement of the coil-over-damper unit, and so they take no side loads.

Front, stage 1 frame is more than enough for road going abuse but stage 3 is deffo the best one for improving handling.

Rear, got the same one as Alex.

Rear ARB is a good mod and with bracing if you want to go for being silly, just park over a pot hole to change a wheel then

Front, stage 1 frame is more than enough for road going abuse but stage 3 is deffo the best one for improving handling.

Rear, got the same one as Alex.

Rear ARB is a good mod and with bracing if you want to go for being silly, just park over a pot hole to change a wheel then

rear ARB? not sure how this'll work...?

Car sees some pretty hard road use (for a 1050!) and will be going trackwards fairly soon...

Yep, Rear ARB, basic GT one is just an extra brace bar built in, but there are methods of doing a proper job and fitting one.

That beams a triangulated one (brace bars) but the arb fitting is the same.

My car see's some very fast road use (Ambulance Service Responder) and some track, and i can say the amount of faith i have in the stagr 3 over the stock ARB set-up is amazing, i had to borrow the stocl mk2 breddy and shat myself when i tried to throw it round a bend

mikey has adapted a rover ARB for the rear but I cannae remember how he did it.

Yeah, just read that- so am I right in thinking that a simple brace across the beam ( say 20mm square steel tube) would do a similar job, seeing as how the ARB is just used to stiffen the beam, and isn't attached to the body in any way?

I'm all for a simple approach... ; )

Edited 6 February, 201214 yr by gregory4130

Yep, Rear ARB, basic GT one is just an extra brace bar built in, but there are methods of doing a proper job and fitting one.

That beams a triangulated one (brace bars) but the arb fitting is the same.

My car see's some very fast road use (Ambulance Service Responder) and some track, and i can say the amount of faith i have in the stagr 3 over the stock ARB set-up is amazing, i had to borrow the stocl mk2 breddy and shat myself when i tried to throw it round a bend

sorry if its already written but where is the black arb from please? in desperate need of one

Edited 30 April, 201313 yr by Camberchris