dseid2

RodeoFlyer:

In response to some ofthe points you made:

The Griggs, GR40 Ultimate Street Performance base suspension package starts at just under $9K,the FRPP Mustang Handling pack starts at $1,300, the Steeda Handling Pack starts at $899 theBMR's handling package starts at $1,450. So if you are looking at this from a marketing/financial perspective, who is ripping off who on a street application?Further Griggs marketing literature says that for race applications (what their parts are designed for) you do need to stiffen the chassis. To quote Griggs"The 2005+ cars have a significantly more rigid chassis so at this time for street, autocross and open track cars we do not recommend any frame stiffening. This however does not apply to race cars as you can never have a chassis that is to stiff in a race vehicle". So yes Griggs does recommend stiffening the S197 chassis for the applications their parts are designed for, racing! There are a lot of very knowledgeable people on this forum who have stiffened their S197 chassis for a street application.For example, F1Fan runs a Steeda G-Trac brace and has recommendedSteeda's front sway bar mount braces on this forum, both chassis stiffening parts (I know F1Fan agrees with you on strut tower braces). However, according to Griggs, street applications don’t need any chassis stiffening. So I stand by myargument that you can't use Griggs marketing materials to decide whether on not an S197 street application needs to have the chassis stiffened, Griggs is not in the same market.

Second, I have never seen a published,repeatable, documented test, done by a qualified organization or individual with the proper credentials, tools and test equipment, that proves or disproves the effectiveness of S197 strut tower braces on a street application.Thereis however, a lot of hearsay on the web. A lot ofindividuals espousethe opinion that you don't need any chassis stiffening on anS197. However,a lot ofwell educatedS197 engineers with the proper credentials, tools and testequipmentseem todisagree. Who wouldyoubelieve, a guy on a thread with unproven or no credentials, orDario Orlando? Also, I think you have to ask how far someone wants to go with their suspension before you say in your opinion you should not purchase a strut tower brace. Perhaps your position would be better stated if you saidthat in your opinion,for the average S197 street application,a struttower brace is not the best suspension bang for the buck. Finally there are a lot of cars with stiffer chassis than the S197 Mustang for which there are strut tower braces on the market.

I do want to say that I have read many of your posts and I do think you are one of the more educated contributors to this forum. You may be right,strut tower braces may not be the best suspension bang for the buck for the average street application.However, until there are published, repeatable, documentedtests that prove or disprove the effectiveness of S197 strut tower braces, you can’t call it proven.

On some other points,in the past I have reviewedsome of the intellectual property owned by FRPP and Steeda, so yes, I doknowthey design parts together (it is also public knowledge). Second, you repliedto someone on this post that they had a bump steer issue on a car that was not lowered, I responded poorly to that point with the cowl shake thought. My point on cowl shake thought was that all manufactures stiffen convertibles at the factory, even S197's and that a lot of convertibles come with strut tower braces.

To summarize my argument, every engineering/manufacturing/marketingconcernof first and second level S197 street application suspension packages on the market today (I do not consider Griggs a maker of first and second level street application suspension packages) recommends a strut tower brace for street applications. Further, if strut tower braces are such a bad suspension upgrade for the buck, you would think that at least one of the companies marketing and selling street application suspension upgrades would drop strut tower braces from their suspension packages and inventories. At minimum this would allow them to more competitively price their suspension packages and reduce their inventories. Finally, I know of no documented, published tests that proves or disproves the effectiveness of S197 strut tower braces in a street application. If you know of any please forward them to me

Best Regards


[IMG]local://upfiles/63299/24CA8CF7A91748CE94A380E60A6D45C6.jpg[/IMG]