According to Ford Racings Website the FR500 has the handling pack installed (M-2005-FR3), that means it has the strut tower brace, since that's part of the handling pack. The Club Racer and GT-H have it to. Go to the following URL, scroll down and click "Power Upgrade Packages".

http://www.fordracingparts.com/mustang/buildyourown.asp

 

Sorry, I meant the REAL FR500 race cars not those "street race package" or whatever the heck those are. For example, you can read about the Grand-Am Cup FR500C here: http://mustang50magazine.com/feature...r500c_mustang/

That car that you liked to on the Ford Performance web site is just a "street mustang" with some bolt-ons. The ACTUAL race cars don't have the brace.

 

I heard about that on this forum. But I'm pretty sure the guy that had that happen had simply installed the bar backwards. Once he put it in the correct way it fit just fine.

 

Yes, but that car goes under some pretty radical stiffeng (see quote below). I don't think it's fair to compare a stock GT to a car that's undergone 40 hours of welding and had a cage installed. I don't think adding a strut tower brace to the FR500C would make that much difference after all of that work. On a street car, I don't know.

"Peering inside the unibodies as they arrive from Watson Engineering, it's safe to assume the installed cage adds plenty of rigidity, but so do the 2,000-plus seam welds that look like inch worms crawling along the joints of every stamped panel. These welds alone account for about 40 man-hours, says Ford Racing's Primo Goffi. Series rules disallow the cage from passing forward of the firewall. Also visible on the floor in this shot is the build binder that accompanies each chassis under construction. More on this in a minute."

I have an FRPP strut tower brace on my GT, right now. I wasn't sure, myself, but I can tell a difference only under certain extremely tight turns. No difference changing lanes or at town speeds, as you might imagine. Now, I'm not claiming it made a world of difference, in fact, I guess I could have not put it on and never missed it that much.

Here's what I think, it's adds very little weight (10lbs or so lbs on a 3,500 lbs car? Most of us can get rid of 10lbs by doing sit ups), it looks good, and anything you do to the chasis to strengthen it can't be bad.

 

After my recent brush with death (yeah right) I'm convinced that a little extra handling could save my life one day. A lady in an SUV didn't yield to oncoming traffic when she made her left turn, forcing me to drive up on the sidewalk to avoid a collision. I'm convinced that if I had sway bars, I would have been able to carve right around her... that and if I wasn't going 20+ over the speed limit. In any case, I'm certain that the extra stiffness just might save my life one day on top of driving more defensively.

 

The Strange STB fits over the FRPP plenum cover, and doesn't rub the hood, though it might rub the hood insulation, which I have removed anyway.

 

I just installed the GT500 on my car....I had to put two fender washers under the rear bolts so it would clear the intake manifold.