Bracing for success

Bolt-on chassis braces increase stiffness for better steering response and NVH with less weight than a similarly strong, unbraced frame.

A bolt-on reinforcing brace may look like an afterthought or a patched-on solution, but in fact a variety of chassis braces are increasingly giving new cars, especially high-performance models, superior levels of rigidity.

That translates into corresponding benefits in steering response, control of wheel movement over bumps, and, counterintuitively, NVH. That's because appropriate rigidity at suspension pickup points on the frame allows use of compliant bushings that reduce NVH transmitted to the driver.