Strut Braces in the Day

[jaudette3]

I was browsing pictures of late 60's, early 70's rally cars and I saw at least one with a strut brace. Those aren't listed in the Sports Purpose Bulletin but they were evidently used under some conditions. Does anyone know if they were commonly used and if so, what type was used?

Cheers,
JohnA

[Flunder]

Hello John,

Here are a couple of pics of period installations of strut braces.

First off, there is a simple steel tube butt welded to gusset plates that are in turn welded to the inner fenders. I think this is a Safari car but lost my notes on this image.

Next, there is a variation of the above installation with a two eared bracket welded to the very stout looking inner fender gussets and the ends of the bar bolted into the two eared brackets. This shown in a MY 1972 2,5L ST factory built for circuit racing and then factory updated for rallying.

Thirdly, the 2,3L ST style strut brace that bolts into the strut tower through large washers welded to the upper surface of the tower as in MY1971 Safari. In some cars the cross bar was painted body color but in others it was satin black.

Finally, the most elegant solution, the RSR style strut brace, this shown in a 2,5L ST clone that was at Essen a couple of years ago. Cosmetically, this is the best solution, but perhaps out of period for the Transformer. However, the Milestone car, a SWB chassis, was restored using this style strut brace.

None of the factory solutions are easily reversible so perhaps it would be best to use a simple looking bolt-in after market bar and give it a paint treatment using satin brackets and perhaps the cross bar in Bahama to make it all look period.

If you are feeling that only a period solution will do, for a SWB I would use a length of steel tube welded in across the inner fenders. Similar bars were used in Ferrari Type '62 GTO (in which application it was termed a "spreader bar") and '65 Mustang GT 350 (termed a Monte Carlo bar as it was a copy of the piece on the '64 Falcon Monte Carlo rally cars) so the concept was well understood by those involved in motorsport by the time the first SWB came along.

The only SWB race car that I was familiar with in period was Ralph Meaney's car when it was based in Massachusetts. It did not have a strut bar in 1967/68 although one might have been added later.

[davep]

It is interesting that the early ones basically spanned the narrowest point betwen the shock towers. The later ones were mounted as high as possible using braces; probably to take advantage of lever action.

[Anatol]

Some years ago I missed out on a 911S from 1967 in Switzerland that was delivered with a Rallye kit. That car had a square shaped strut brace which seemed original.

[letsrollbabe]

Raj:

Great shots! Hey, maybe this is some kind of 'prototype' from the factory....

I think you have nailed it, Raj, this is the transistion car from the early ST and RSR type of cross brace arrangement. What a really neat car.

Gib

[Flunder]

Raj:

Gib has it spot on: the 001 strut brace is the missing link between the early versions and the RSR version. Great pics.