Hands up all the engineers of the forum!
From my knowledge, I'd go with K9huff.
Nigel and Jimbo, round tube has a uniform behaviour and that's one of the reasons it's used in many things, but in our case square of the right dimensions and thickness will be fine.

V.

Now I think about it, I concede the point about square section on space frame cars

I have a brief engineering background, and Jimbo's is rather more up to date than mine.

However, I have no answer to your point about moments of area, so I will happily bow to your knowledge.

My brace is still going to be round though

Nigel, Whats you opinion on this ?

pointless....

There's simply no point in bracing the subframe between its own mounting points to the chassis, so three sides of that frame are a waste of mild steel

true...

makes a more impressive kit though and I guess they can charge more

V.

Hmm true. They quoted USD85..pretty cheap. Just wondering if clearance would be a bigger issue with all that extra mounting points.

I have tested it. My car is lowered with Eibach springs. I think the clearance to the ground was three fingers, ca 60 mm.

You tried the exact same one freddan? 3 Fingers?!? Are there no road humps in Sweden?

I never fitted it, just tested it in the garage
I think you should only use it on a car that is not lowered.

The roads in Sweden are not the best. Holes & humps, we got it all

Totally agree, that's a complete waste of steel, the side and rear parts of the brace are doing nothing whatsoever.

If they wanted to (possibly) improve on a standard brace then that extra steel would be better used as a diagonal member, triangulating the brace.




Not a mechanical/structural engineer though, but it is a bit of a hobby.

Thats what I was thinking.

What about fitting one of the OMP brace's anf then bracing that to the mounts that hold the radiator bracket?

just so you all know, the subframe brace Group Buy is back on again

is it a direct fit for the 16vT or only for the 20vT ?

I have one of nigels lower braces on my 16vt. I didnt fit it myself (Motormech did) but AFAIK it's a direct fit.

yes - fits 16v / 16VT as well as 20v variants