Braces!!
I can not believe how much better the entire car is with all the SCP braces! I did the front support braces several months back and was plesantly suprised with them. Well just last night I bolted up the firewall brace in anticipation of having it welded on today. I also installed the SCP IRS brace and its one of the greatest mods I did to my car. It was simple to install, cheap and works perfect! The quality and precision of the part is really incrediable for such a low production hand made piece.
So this morning I leave the house and hammer some corners to see if I could feel a difference with just the IRS brace as my front braces still need to be welded. I could feel the rear of the car bite through the turn like never before. I started pushing it harder and it just continued to stay planted. I gave up trying to kick the tail out after my g-meter said 1.01g's and I started to get nauseaus. :lol: The car can go so fast through a turn it started to scare me. I did have some push on the nose but am addressing that.
After I was done playing around and hit the highway I noticed yet another benifit. The cars rear rides SOOOOOO much better now! Wasnt expecting that! I know why it rides better, its cause the shocks and springs now have total controll where as before the LCA mounts could flex before the shock would dampen the impacts of expansion joints.
Fast lane changes are also 20x better. We all have felt the tail wiggle some when changing lanes fast and accelerating hard, well no more! It is rock freakin solid!
Then when I got to Waco I had the front firewall to k-member braces welded in and yet again was shocked by the difference! Front end bites hard and the steering dont wobble when you hit bigger bumps now. Got rid of 60% of the push and my new sway bar should help with the rest.
Excellent mods for very little cash and the quality is superb!
Now for some people that wonder why they work I will try and explain. For those of you that know how camber, castor and toe works you can skip all this.
Toe: That is how the tires are situated in relation to the opposite side. Toe in is the leading edges of the tires are pointed more to the center of the car. Imagine pigen feet how their toes are pointed inward.
Car will respond faster to steering inputs but also be darty and wonder all over.
Toe out is like a ducks feet with the leading edges pointed outward. Car becomes able to track straight easier but is less responsive to steering inputs.
Caster: Its basically wheelbase settings by adjusting the front nuts position on the strut rods. Its the relation to how straight up and down the struts are in relation to the car. Look at the side of the cars front wheel and thats the setting that centers the wheel in the wheel well. If the strut were leaning foreward then thats negative caster (bad) and if its leaning to the rear then thats positive caster. Our cars like somewhere around 5*.
Camber: Looking at the tires tread if the lower part of the tire sticks out farther then the top then thats negative camber and if the top is outward more thats positive camber. For a regular road car you want that at close to flat as you can with just a hair of negative camber. Mine is more agressive as I love the corners so when my car is in its lower position I have 1.2* negative camber in the rear and .9* negative in the front because the front of our cars camber changes drastically when the suspension moves.
OK so here is how the IRS brace helps make the car handle better. By bracing the LCA mounts to each other that keeps the rear outside tire from going into positive camber during hard turns since that mount no longer flexes inward. That also eliminates it from adding toe out during the corner. With the toe out the car feels like its sliding and you get front end push.
Now you no longer have that issue. Also since the LCA mounts dont flex that meens the shock can now do its job and absorb impacts instead of the mount flexing first.
With the front end braces the k-member is now positivly located. What that allows is for the k-member to no longer move foreward or back which eliminated the toe and caster change during bumps and hard cornering. It makes the steering much more predictable and allows for much less heading corrections while in a corner. That meens higher speeds as you can smothly track a turn and not upset the cars balence by adjusting the steering input angle cause the car changed it because the k-member flexed backward causeing it to reduce caster and have too much toe in.
I hope this helps some people here. I would have never believed how much better these simple pieces made the car behave if I didnt see first hand. They are worth their weight in gold and if I buy another Mark they will be my very first mod.
I can not believe how much better the entire car is with all the SCP braces! I did the front support braces several months back and was plesantly suprised with them. Well just last night I bolted up the firewall brace in anticipation of having it welded on today. I also installed the SCP IRS brace and its one of the greatest mods I did to my car. It was simple to install, cheap and works perfect! The quality and precision of the part is really incrediable for such a low production hand made piece.
So this morning I leave the house and hammer some corners to see if I could feel a difference with just the IRS brace as my front braces still need to be welded. I could feel the rear of the car bite through the turn like never before. I started pushing it harder and it just continued to stay planted. I gave up trying to kick the tail out after my g-meter said 1.01g's and I started to get nauseaus. :lol: The car can go so fast through a turn it started to scare me. I did have some push on the nose but am addressing that.
After I was done playing around and hit the highway I noticed yet another benifit. The cars rear rides SOOOOOO much better now! Wasnt expecting that! I know why it rides better, its cause the shocks and springs now have total controll where as before the LCA mounts could flex before the shock would dampen the impacts of expansion joints.
Fast lane changes are also 20x better. We all have felt the tail wiggle some when changing lanes fast and accelerating hard, well no more! It is rock freakin solid!
Then when I got to Waco I had the front firewall to k-member braces welded in and yet again was shocked by the difference! Front end bites hard and the steering dont wobble when you hit bigger bumps now. Got rid of 60% of the push and my new sway bar should help with the rest.
Excellent mods for very little cash and the quality is superb!
Now for some people that wonder why they work I will try and explain. For those of you that know how camber, castor and toe works you can skip all this.
Toe: That is how the tires are situated in relation to the opposite side. Toe in is the leading edges of the tires are pointed more to the center of the car. Imagine pigen feet how their toes are pointed inward.
Car will respond faster to steering inputs but also be darty and wonder all over.
Toe out is like a ducks feet with the leading edges pointed outward. Car becomes able to track straight easier but is less responsive to steering inputs.
Caster: Its basically wheelbase settings by adjusting the front nuts position on the strut rods. Its the relation to how straight up and down the struts are in relation to the car. Look at the side of the cars front wheel and thats the setting that centers the wheel in the wheel well. If the strut were leaning foreward then thats negative caster (bad) and if its leaning to the rear then thats positive caster. Our cars like somewhere around 5*.
Camber: Looking at the tires tread if the lower part of the tire sticks out farther then the top then thats negative camber and if the top is outward more thats positive camber. For a regular road car you want that at close to flat as you can with just a hair of negative camber. Mine is more agressive as I love the corners so when my car is in its lower position I have 1.2* negative camber in the rear and .9* negative in the front because the front of our cars camber changes drastically when the suspension moves.
OK so here is how the IRS brace helps make the car handle better. By bracing the LCA mounts to each other that keeps the rear outside tire from going into positive camber during hard turns since that mount no longer flexes inward. That also eliminates it from adding toe out during the corner. With the toe out the car feels like its sliding and you get front end push.
Now you no longer have that issue. Also since the LCA mounts dont flex that meens the shock can now do its job and absorb impacts instead of the mount flexing first.
With the front end braces the k-member is now positivly located. What that allows is for the k-member to no longer move foreward or back which eliminated the toe and caster change during bumps and hard cornering. It makes the steering much more predictable and allows for much less heading corrections while in a corner. That meens higher speeds as you can smothly track a turn and not upset the cars balence by adjusting the steering input angle cause the car changed it because the k-member flexed backward causeing it to reduce caster and have too much toe in.
I hope this helps some people here. I would have never believed how much better these simple pieces made the car behave if I didnt see first hand. They are worth their weight in gold and if I buy another Mark they will be my very first mod.