is a STB necessary?
 

i have an 800HP twin turbo engine that is gettin dropped in soon and i have absolutely no room for a STB. my car is mostly a street driver and i want it to handle as best as a 3rd gen possibly can. i have everything but a STB and coil overs (which i do not plan on converting to) and i dont want to be twisting anything when i hit hard corners. do i really need a STB or is all this talk about the front frame twisting/flexing not as bad as its made out to be?
i want my car solid.

you should have one... and if you go coilover/airstrut design you really should have one.

If you have everything but an STB and coil overs...

...you have subframe connectors right?

A STB won't be as noticable a difference as the subframe connectors or a proper Wonderbar, but everything helps and it really is essential for serious performance.

Just think about it: picture the empty engine bay, the engine provides no rigidity increase;

you just have a big open well between two pontoons of folded sheetmetal, that big open bay is "braced" by the firewall, almost insignificantly by the radiator support area, and on bottom by the K-member.

None of that lame factory structure recieves and dissipates those loads directly, which is the job of an STB. Have you ever seen the engine bay of a 350Z or G35? The firewall leafs forward and blends into the strut towers and kinda cups the engine from the back, much more ideal.

I have complaints about all the STBs available. A properly engineered 3-point is better than a properly engineered 2-point bar by itself. Every serious cagework you'll ever see (ahem, WRC cars) is extensively triangulated.

I reviewed my Edelbrock 3-point for my lamearse TBI Camaro, critiquing it's areas of lacking. Search my screenname for the thread. However, for my application it is the best there is and a significant difference.

yes i have SFCs, an adjustable wonderbar and even a 10 pt cage just no STB. i really want my car as stiff as possible without having to cut it all up for a backhalf or anything extreme like that. the turbos just sit in the exact location that the STB crosses the engine bay. there is no way to go curve infront of the turbos cause of all the pipe work. the only thing i can think of is to make a custom set up where it looks like a 3 pt STB but i leave out the bar that goes straight across the engine bay and move it further back kinda like this:
/_ _\
/ \
but would that even be worth it? like would it even work as a normal STB would?

woops heres a drawing

In my opinion, that is very little help.

I've been told on here, unless you have upgraded your strut mounts to the solid billet ones, an STB is basically useless. Your actually setting on rubber which flex's anyway.

what kind of intake manifold and throttle body setup are you running?

so these turbos are close to the front of the valve covers?

pics?

that's funny, my billet units actually bent slightly with normal street use over stock.

Kandied...
What I'm saying, is you can brace the fenderwells/body all you want. But with the stock rubber mounts, it absorbs the flex, not the body.

Get solid strut mounts so you have no flex in your suspension. Then you have to worry about the body flexing.

Or, if you have a convertible, the body may be flexing before the rubber!

i was with you... just pointing out my billet units which i had hoped would be strong were softer.

:)

yes turbos are infront and above the valve covers, have a custom intake box, need new connector wire for my digi cam so i can upload pics