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Chassis Braces
Even though it is made of steel (and whatever else), the chassis and body of every car flexes. As a car progresses through a turn, the forces involved will cause the car to twist. This needs to be minimized.
This twisting is not the slanting of body roll as the springs stretch on one side and compress on the other. This is an actual twisting of the floor pan and body panels. Like the flexing of a suspension system, this twisting impacts the tire contact patches, and in fact affects the suspension system by changing the suspension system's alignment with the body and with the road surface.
The most common after market street modification to reduce twisting is to add shock tower braces. The car's body structure by necessity has several very large cutouts to accommodate doors and windows, the engine hood, and the trunk or hatchback door. These holes, like large holes cut out of a box, reduce the strength of the body and make it easier for the car to twist.
Shock tower bars add a solid bar across the tops of the shock towers (they just happen to be a convenient point that can be connected with a straight or nearly straight bar) to fill the gaps in two of the largest holes--across the engine bay and across the trunk cavity. During cornering these bars add strength and reduce the overall twisting of the body.
Aftermarket tower braces are typically fairly easy bolt-in items. In addition to installing these, shops which specialize in modifying your particular car may also know of unique weak spots in the car's chassis that benefit from special bracing as well.
Is one bar style or make going to be functionally better than another. Probably, but overall they're all going to be very close, and likely beyond your ability to tell the difference. Some cars are going to accommodate bars which go directly from one tower to the other. Other cars may not have space in the engine bay to do this, and may instead connect the shock towers to the firewall. Likewise, some cars will have room for rear tower bars, and others will not.
There is a bit of a read for u.
Long story short. Stops the chasis from flexing and twisting under cornering.
If you can keep the chasis from flexing, you can keep the suspension geometry how it's supposed to be.
Also you end up with better steering response, due to the much better weight transfer and a more predictable car.
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