I have a roll bar and some frame rail braces.

Will I suffer a significant handling penalty if I ditch the OEM 01+ butterfly brace?

I hate this stupid thing. It angers me to have to take it off every time I am doing something under my car. It's heavy, bulky, and ******* ugly.

 

my base 01 didnt come with one and it's still more rigid than Ron Jeremy on Viagra.

 

None of those braces are on my 01 right now. Yesterday when I raised the car with a floor jack at the front driver's side jack point, the jack lifted the entire driver's side of the car off the ground. I was amazed when the rear tire came off the ground, too. The NB's are stiff. First time I put it up on a jack, I used a lift previously so didn't notice.

 

Funny, I added the FM butterfly brace and noticed a difference, I'd equate it to adding a hardtop and latching it down tightly.

edit: granted I have a NA8

 

The FM butterfly makes a lot more difference than the hardtop. HT reduces vibration and noise, but doesn't actually stiffen the chassis. It's just a piece of fiberglass attached in four points (frankenbolts don't count) with rubber gaskets between them.

--Ian

 

I must have a really crappy chassis if I can notice the stiffness of the hardtop then. lol, but I only noticed it when using the side latches with the front latches, with just the front latches (which I use right now because of rollbar interference) I don't notice anything.

Adding the hardtop before the rollbar and FM braces removed a lot of vibration over bumps, just like adding the FM braces did, only the FM braces helped a lot more with pot holes and driveway curbs.

Regardless, I don't own a NB like you guys, so I can't comment on if it's useful with your car, it just was huge for mine. Just my two cents.

 

Go back to the gym. Man up. Quit working on your car and just drive it!

 

OK I will take it off and put it on my garage wall. Let's see what happens.

 

Why do you keep posting this crap in the track section. GTFO

 

Because I thought track crew could tell me if it was worthwhile gear or not.

 

Do you track your car ?

 

Point ^^

 

Well if he doesnt track the car does it really matter if its helpful or not on the track ? I am sure for a street only car it doesnt matter if he has the brace or not.

If you dont like it for whatever reason just remove it who cares how helpful it is on the track. Unless of course you track your car

 

doesn't matter really, I have a 99 NB and don't have that thing. my car does fine. I know the rear 6-point bracing that attaches to the subframe helps a bit with the 65mph shimmy.

I will say my NB will lift both tires up from the front/rear pinch welds without the stock butterfly (if thats the way we want to measure it).