The Strut Bar is known as a balancing bar that adds stability to the car body when entering corners. It is often seen in sports cars or racing cars. Because of this, this accessory has recently attracted the attention of users because everyone wants to increase the safety of their beloved car. Surrounding this accessory, many people wonder if the Strut Bar is really useful for regular cars?
What is a Strut Bar?
In the car accessory market, the Strut Bar is often advertised as an additional device for cars that helps to enhance the driving experience, reduce body twist when entering corners, and improve vehicle stability during operation. Basically, the Strut Bar is a rod directly attached to the car frame, which can be located in various positions such as on the engine compartment or on the sides of the car body…
Advertisements demonstrating the stability of the car after installing the Strut Bar.
The balancing bar helps reinforce the car’s undercarriage.
Browsing through car modification shops, you can see that the price of a Strut Bar is quite affordable, ranging from a few million dong for the cheaper models. Mainly, customers of regular cars in Vietnam choose to install a Strut Bar above the front section because the installation process is quite simple, requiring only attachment at two points hidden neatly under the hood. The practical effects are not clear, but it does give the engine bay of the car a sporty feel.
Most regular car models nowadays can easily be equipped with a Strut Bar above the front section.
What are the real effects of these balancing bars?
In theory, a balancing bar or strut can reinforce the car body and increase stability during operation. However, this is only true when you have installed all the necessary braces, including anti-roll bars, lower front strut bars, upper front strut bars, front braces, and frame braces. And these bracing bars only have a noticeable effect on some sports car models with lightweight frames that require additional reinforcement for body stability.
On the other hand, most regular car models are only equipped with an upper front strut bar, which costs only a few million dong and therefore cannot provide a clear difference. In addition, to ensure stability during operation, the car’s body structure, drivetrain, suspension system, and active safety technologies all play a role. Therefore, it is certain that just a bar under the hood will not provide the desired stability.
According to the practical evaluation of many users and experts, a balancing bar does not have any effect on regular car models.
According to technical advice from Mr. Vinh Nguyen – a member of the RedLine Team, for most regular car models today, adding an upper front strut bar will not significantly improve vehicle control or provide a different driving experience. As for luxury cars and high-end sports cars, the manufacturers have already calculated and designed the necessary braces to optimize the driving experience and body stiffness. Therefore, adding a balancing bar is unnecessary.
The engine bay of luxury cars like Aston Martin has already been reinforced with balancing bars. (Photo: To Tung)
Therefore, car owners should consider whether installing a balancing bar is beneficial as it has little effect on regular cars. The real-life test by experts like Mr. Vinh Nguyen has shown that this type of balancing bar is just for “fun, and has no effect”.
More importantly, closely observe road conditions, terrain, and driving skills as fundamental prerequisites to ensure safety while driving. Do not rely too much on the equipment on your car and “take risks” with experiments, as sometimes the consequences can be regrettable.