I got home from work a little late this evening, and there it was, about three days earlier than expected from the tracking number. Thank you Brian. Tis truely a thing of beauty. And within 1.5 hours, it was on the car. Only problem I ran into was dropping one of the bolts that held my smaller relay box to the cowl pan thingy.
Fantastic, Larry! I can hardly wait for your report on how it affects driving. Please plan now to come to the May meetup!
Hi Sheepdog, Are you still looking to spend the wife's bonus? Anyways, here's the write-up by Brian of BT Tech: "BT Tech is proud to offer our newest Strut Tower Brace for the 2004-2008 Prius’. This part mounts to the top of the each strut tower located under the hood in the engine compartment and its purpose is to increase chassis rigidity, decrease under-steer, and provide improved steering response when turning. This part installed along with our BT Tech stiffening plate literally transforms the Prius and makes it a much more enjoyable car to drive due to the increased chassis rigidity and promotes significant improvements in handling and high speed stability. Our Strut Tower Brace is fabricated with 6061-T6 aluminum and is tig-welded for high strength. The brace is pressed high tensile steel with CAD engineered bends for the ultimate strength. Both the bar and bracket supports are powder coated for a long lasting finish and good looks. This product [is] availble in the Prius Chat online store."
thanks Boo. If it is so necessary why didnt Toyota put it in the car? or is it like a mod that isnt really needed but nice to have like better tires or shocks? Im not very car performance savvy, and yes I still havent spent her bonus. She gets it in the end of month check.
It's not necessary. It's a performance item. But for me, the biggest issue I've had with the Prius is that IMO the handling is subpar. I'm not looking to turn the Prius into a sports car (which the BT Tech Strut Tower Brace and rear Stiffening Plate will not do). But I'd like its handling to be at least average (and preferably, above average) for a car of its size.
Think of a strut bar as the "top" of a box. If you look at car from the front and picture it as a box, you have the suspension arms as the bottom and shocks/ struts as the sides of the box, but there is really no top. (The hood does not count because it isn't attached to the suspension). A strut bar, which attaches to the struts/ shocks, completes the box and adds rigidity. i.e. the sides of a box would easily fold in with no top.
Nice looking piece of work. I'd love to see someone put some strain gauges on one of these, and also on the BT Brace. It would be good to see some real numbers to support the conjecture. I would do it, but I don't have either on my Prius. Tom
Larry, your install looks GREAT!! Thanks for your patience and understanding about the delays in getting this to you.
Sorry for my delay in getting back to those with questions. It was not raining when I started to install the brace, but began raining once I got everything spread out all over the driveway. This is not unusual at all here in the Pacific Northwest. No true Pacific Northwesterner would abort an outdoor activity due to some traces of liquid sunshine that were not expected. (Sniffle, Sniffle, Achooooo!!!!). Excuse me, I thing I am catching a cold somehow. Suffice it to say I was cold enough and wet enough that I didn't test drive the installation until the next morning on the way to work. Now I am not sure what the proper handling evaluation terminology to use it, but I will say that the car seems to be better Planted on the road, and Fertilized for solid root growth. After first adding a BT Tech Stiffening plate, and then Nokian WR tires, my handling was already greatly improves such that I did not notice the imediate Night and Day difference as I did with the first two mods, but over two or three days of driving, you begin to notice the difference in better responsiveness in my non-hotrod style of driving. There is less guess work involved in steering where I can predict better exactly how much to turn the wheel to place the car in any desired path. I don't know, maybe it is called less Oversteer, Understeer, or Fade. I don't have any strain guages handy, but i was thinking I could remove the bolt from one end of the bar, add a light under my hood and mount a video camera to see how much the bar moved back and forth in it's otherwise captive mounting location, but that seems like a bunch of work since I already know I like the improvement. Plus, it got me a Special Personal invitation to the next Portland Hybrid Synergy Drive Meetup Group get together abpve and beyond the standard warm optn invitation. I'll probably just remove the hood from the car for the HSD meetup, and then one of our junior members will probably volunteer to lay across the cowl of my car and watch for the displacement as I do some slalums.
Yes, it is a "Nice to Have" enhancement. But one that I feel can increase safety. Toyota designs the car to meet a what they consider acceptable level of safety, but anything that improves handling responsiveness can help in accident avoidance. There are countless things Toyota engineeers must leave off the car to maintain competative pricing and profits. This is why the car doesn't come from the factory with dual rear Video Entertainment package with Satellite TV and full video library on hard drive included.
