If you own a late model Porsche GT car, most likely you have heard the horror stories of catastrophic strut tower failure leading to structural chassis repairs and massive loss in value of GT Porsche’s. These are not just random internet ramblings… the risk is real and the consequences can be disastrous. We have witnessed these failures, and as avid Porschephiles ourselves, we have developed a solution. Our new Breakaway Camber Plate is really a 2 in 1 product. On the one hand it allows for increased camber, much like other aftermarket upgraded camber plates. But at the same time, our Breakaway Camber Plate also prevents the dreaded strut tower failure. In order to understand the function of our Breakaway Camber Plate, lets first examine why GT cars are prone to strut tower failure:
- Porsche strut towers are made of die cast aluminum. This material is very strong, rigid, and lightweight, but possesses very little ductility and does not typically bend under severe impacts.
- Porsche GT cars are lower than Carrera models, and therefore have reduced suspension travel. Reduced suspension travel increases the likelihood of the suspension bottoming out, and experiencing severe impact.
- Porsche GT cars have solid spherical bearing camber plates from the factory. These solid spherical bearings do not have any bushings to dampen impacts, so all strut loads are transferred directly to the shock towers.
- More importantly, the OEM GT camber plates are extremely robust. In the event of a massive impact such as a pothole, the OEM camber plate does not bend or crack, it is MUCH stronger than the strut towers. Bottom line is that the strut towers become sacrificial, rather than a replaceable part!
Our Patent Pending Breakaway Camber Plate significantly reduces the chances of strut tower failure by making the camber plate sacrificial, not the chassis of your Porsche! Under normal operating conditions, our camber plate offers a direct solid connection between the struts and the strut towers, as you would expect from a track oriented GT product. However, unlike any other product on the market, our camber plates essentially sacrifice themselves in case of an impact, allowing our integrated elastomer bushing to absorb the impact and protect the strut towers. In the event of a severe impact, the Breakaway Camber Plate can easily be reset with the original solid link function restored in a matter of minutes! Please check out our video below for a more detailed explanation of how the RR Racing Breakaway Camber Plate works.
Frequently Asked Questions:
How does your Breakaway Camber Plate Solution compare to strut reinforcement plates?
In most cases a reinforcement plate does not address the root cause of the problem. The root cause of the problem are the massive impact loads associated with bottoming out of the suspension, and the inability of the stock camber plate or strut tower to absorb the impact and deflect. In many cases, upper reinforcement plates can theoretically help, but often times they simply transfer loads to other failure prone areas of the strut tower. The bottom line is that when the GT suspension bottoms out, the strut towers experience a metal-on-metal impact event without any deflection of the camber plate or the strut tower. The impact force of a metal-on-metal impact can easily be 2-4 times higher than impact dampened by our elastomer cushioned camber plate. So bottom line is, without dampening the impact, can you reasonably make the strut towers 2-4 times stronger? We don't think so.
How much additional camber does your camber plate provide?
Our camber plates are designed to add up to 1.2deg negative camber and 1.5 degrees negative caster.
