US Cartool Braces

[1moretoy]

Hey all, need your opinion on the inner fender brace kit. I plan on either making or purchasing some engine bay down bars similar to the photos attached. Does it make sense to install these with the US-Cartool inner fender brace kit? Seems like they would be doing the same thing, just attaching to different points on the car. I don't want to do it twice and definitely don't want to spend unnecessary money. Let me know your thoughts on doing both or one vs the other. Thanks!!

 

[ItsJustMe]

I would, and have went the USCT route. With a Hellcat every bit of extra engine bay room you can free up is worth it. The USCT kit is proven.

 

[1moretoy]

I can still do both, it's not too late. Just wasn't sure if it made sense.

 

[gzig5]

The down bars transfer the flex directly from the frame to the cowl. The USCT version uses the inner fender to be the conduit. I'm not convinced the inner fender won't flex some even with the USCT bracket in place. It's obviously better than no support. I think if a rigid front end is important to you and you can put up with the down bars possibly being in the way, I would do both. Belt and suspenders. I also wonder how stiff that area of the cowl is where the down bar comes in. I would be inclined to try to beef that up, but it may not be an issue depending on how hard you are beating on it. I tend to overthink issues like this, probably from being a Reliability Engineer for part of my career.

I'm putting the USCT kit on my car, and I've given a lot of thought to frame stiffening. I'd like to do down bars in front, but connected to a proper cage, but I'm not sure I want to put up with all the bars in the interior of what will be mostly a street car doing some track days.

 

[6PKRTSE]

The USCT kit is a nice choice. No need for both. I was going to do my snout bars on the outside in the inner fender well and probably should have. However, I decided to do them inboard within the engine bay. I have a 2nd Gen hemi and I am just barely able to remove the rocker covers without the bars causing clearance issues. Made this way on purpose. My bars go through the firewall and tie into the knee bar of the cage. Mine is also a street car for the track, or a race car for the street? I forget which.