Is A Mustang GT Strut Tower Brace Worth It?

The strut tower brace is a polarizing mod, but there are some clear benefits for the right type of build. Some people say they work and some people say they’re useless. I did a little research and here’s what I found.

Is a Mustang GT strut tower brace worth it? A strut tower brace will provide sharper handling by reducing body flex in the front of the car if you plan on modifying your Mustang for improved handling. If you are modifying your Mustang for straight-line speed, they are not recommended due to added weight.

Read on to see if you are a good candidate for a strut tower brace.

Strut Tower Brace Benefits for Improved Handling

If you are planning to modify your Mustang to handle better on the street, circuit courses, or for autocross events, strut tower brace might be for you. During extreme cornering, where the tires are biting their very hardest into the road and your car is giving all it’s got to change direction, the car is going to want to twist based on how much force is applied at all four corners. The stickier the tires, the more the car is going to want to bend.

Picture grabbing your car by the front and the rear and moving in opposite directions. This is essentially what is happening to your car on slaloms and other fast sweeping turns. As your car leans away from the turn, six your suspension will push against the ground to keep it as straight as possible.

Since your front struts are doing a lot of this work, they are applying that force to the body of your car, namely, your strut towers. The strut tower bar ties the two strut towers under the hood together with a single, strong bar to reduce that effect.

What this means in real life is that the suspension and tires will be able to do their jobs, as it’s designed. The car will also feel much better around corners. It’s hard to explain, but the car just kind of holds itself together.

Do Strut Tower Braces Really Work?

Strut tower braces get a bad rap. Most old-school racers consider them the kind of useless equipment on import cars that is there simply to dress up the engine bay. Another useless piece of Fast and Furious junk, basically the same thing as undercarriage lights.

On smaller, lighter cars, I tend to agree. A smaller Honda Civic may not benefit from the extra stiffness. However, since our cars way around 3500 pounds, that is a lot of weight to move around and although modern mustangs such as S197s and S550s have made huge improvements and overall chassis stiffness, they still have an effect.

Another note to consider is that there are much better mods to get before you get a strut tower brace. These things really begin to work well if you have any aftermarket suspension mods or stickier tires. The stiffer the tires and suspension, the more pronounced effect it will have on the chassis of the car. If you only have stock suspension, especially with the V6, you won’t feel a difference with the soft springs and shocks. This is kind of one of those moments where the naysayers are right.

My Experiences with a Strut Tower Brace

Personally, I originally thought that their usefulness was a little overblown, too, but I found a secondhand Ford Racing part from the American Muscle eBay store for about $50 and figured “why not?” I have more than a little fast and furious running through my blood. I live my life quarter-mile at a time, too.

As soon as I put it on, I took the car for a little test drive in my friendly neighborhood shopping mall parking lot. Aggressive turning and I could really feel the front end hold together better. I was instantly impressed.

Doing a little research, it turns out that Ford provided a factory strut tower brace on both the performance pack version of my car as well as a high-performance Boss 302 version. Certainly, Ford and other manufacturers have been guilty of adding extra dress-up parts to please consumers, but the Boss 302 was a special circumstance. It was made specifically for road racing and included a lot of extra equipment to make it a better experience for the driver. So while it may not be very important on performance pack version, the fact that it was present on the Boss 302 is proof enough for me.

I would recommend getting a beefy one. If the point of the strut tower brace is to provide strength, getting a thin crappy one isn’t going to do the job. After I installed my Boss 302 intake and had to purchase another one (see below), I went with the BMR version. Comparing these two together was night and day. The BMR version is more than a few pounds heavier feel like would provide a lot of strength.

Mustang Strut Tower Brace Pros and Cons

Strut tower braces are not for everyone. If you are building a car that focuses completely on straight-line performance and acceleration, you don’t need one. In fact, if your car came with one from the factory, take it off and sell it immediately.

The weight savings alone is enough reason to do this. Since your car won’t be making any turns at speed, weight removed from the front of the car will make a difference in the dragstrip. Honestly, they don’t weigh all that much, perhaps 5 to 10 pounds at the most, but any weight saved is speed earned.

If you’re chasing a low 60-foot time or trying to break into the 11s, skip the strut tower bar.

Boss 302 Issues and S197 Intakes

If you have an S197, your intake will play a part in your strut tower brace choice. Any strut tower brace for this model car will clear the intake manifold without an issue. However, if you have changed your intake manifold, like most of us have, the stock brace will not work anymore.

The Boss 302 intake manifold has longer runners and is, therefore, higher than the stock intake manifold. This means that it occupies the same space under your hood as a stock Ford performance strut tower brace. Even Ford acknowledges that the boss intake manifold is quite large because the design of the intake manifold itself has a small cut out or ridge where an appropriate strut tower brace would fit.

Luckily, aftermarket parts manufacturers make some really nice pieces that fit beautifully under the hood.

Twin-Screw and Roots Superchargers

As the Boss 302 intake manifold provides issues, so do top mounted superchargers. If you want to run a strut tower brace with your supercharger, you only have a few options. Steeda makes a unit that barely clears the supercharger while still being able to close the hood.

Some people have reported issues with their top-mounted supercharger and larger intakes. The strut power bars will clear the screws themselves, but there seem to be some issues on the driver side with a rear feed unit and intake. Others have recommended lowering the engine on higher-quality motor mounts, but that takes an afternoon job into a weekend job in my book.

If you went all out and got an aftermarket twin screw set up, I don’t have any doubt that your vendor will be able to provide some options for you. After all, our cars are not new anymore and most of the mystery has been worked out through trial and error.

Conclusion

If you plan on taking your car through the turns, a strut tower brace isn’t a cure-all for handling, but it does make a difference. I can always tell the difference when I have to take mine off. When I changed to a Boss 302 intake and forgot to order a replacement, it wasn’t very long before I point up the extra cash to get one.

There is a lot of weight under the hood of our cars, especially if you have aftermarket power adders or a GT500. Anything you can do to control that weight will make a difference in handling. Support your strut towers today!

Related Questions

How long does it take to install a strut tower brace? 10 to 15 minutes. Seriously. Anybody could do it because it’s laughably easy. It’s one of those things your grandma could probably handle.

Should I get one if I don’t have any other suspension mods? Honestly, no. There are much better mods to get before you get a strut tower bar. Invest in some lowering springs, first. You’ll be happier.