Sorry, anybody else's gaydar blaring?
The walk-around wasn't THAT bad except for the part where he said the bracing was "only there for looks". Also, the S should stand for Sport, or Sport Mode...whatever you want to call it...it says "S-Sport"...why is this such a complicated concept?
As far as the hollow bracing goes...depends on the torsional rigidity of the material/shape and what the purpose of the brace is. For example, hollow bars do tend to be weaker in the case of swaybars. You may need a 22mm hollow swaybar to provide the same rigidity as a solid 20mm bar. Swaybars are, by design, supposed to give a little as the suspension and chassis shift. Other bars such as the strut bars on the Z are meant to be solid contact points/connections to increase the torsional rigidity of the chassis. The optimal design for a chassis bar in the rear of a car should technically be as close to the struts as possible...where it used to be on the 350z. The new design of the 370z rear chassis brace, a little bit in front of the rear struts, is more practical for marketing purposes. That's not to say the chassis can't be stiffer than the 350z...I'm sure that Nissan engineers spent a good while looking for the perfect place to put it and the perfect material/shape/thickness as well as a balance between weight and rigidity. They must have figured out that they could achieve the same stiffness using a hollow bar as they could using a much heavier solid one....or at least damn close to it...while at the same time keeping the NVH/comfort levels acceptable for the non enthusiast.
This is why I like race cars...you don't have to deal with people's comfort....just make everything as light/strong/purposeful/pure as possible...this is also why supercars like Ferraris and Paganis are so expensive...instead of making compromises...they just figure out a way to have their cake and eat it too...might cost an extra $100,000 but who cares.
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