someboy

iTrader: (6)

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Front-Up-JDM...ht_2370wt_1344


Will this item work to help reduce bodyroll in the front just as well as the F-sport struct bar?


Also will this product help with the body roll as well?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/XE20-IS250-3...ht_4394wt_1344

furryjet

iTrader: (2)

From what I heard the engine strut bar don't do anything but add weight to our cars. My friend has it on his IS and he told me there's no difference at all. However, I have heard other IS owners said that Cusco trunk strut does reduce some body roll.

Kurtz

iTrader: (1)

a strut bar, especially on a car that doesn't even have struts, is dead weight doing little to nothing for the car.

It certainly will not provide any measurable gain at all in performance on a street car.

Initial G

iTrader: (38)

I have a front strut and I hardly notice a difference performance wise. Don't know about the cusco rear either. Cosmetics wise, both look good. However, I did notice a huge difference when I had front and rear sway bars.

someboy

iTrader: (6)

I am sorry but what do you mean "A car that doesn't even have struts?




I mean according to lexus, the F-sport strut bar only increase if i am not mistaken it was either 6% or 46% rigidity while the rear sway bar increase rigidity for like over 150%. So i guess it is only reasonable that we can't feel the difference after installing the front strut bar.

Does anyone else have any experience with these bars? or i will have to be the lab rat?

JDKane527

iTrader: (10)

I think you're confusing your terminology. The F-Sport "struct bar" that increases rigidity by 6%-46% is actually the sway bar. It is tied to the lower control arms of the suspension and will improve roll more than any chassis brace.

Strut braces for our cars are more accurately termed shock tower braces. Strut brace was just the widely accepted term. A shock tower brace won't be as effective as the F-Sport Chassis Under Brace, and you won't really notice it unless your suspension is stiffer and you have good tires.

The front shock tower brace is only joined at a single pivoting point over a small tube. The GTSpec, Cusco, or Ultra Racing shock tower braces will be more effective front shock tower braces than the cheap ebay one.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/GTSPEC-FRONT...ht_4471wt_1037

http://www.ebay.com/itm/XE20-IS250-3...ht_4463wt_1270

That rear shock tower brace is made of steel and is heavier than other braces like the Cusco brace. TunedParts is working on making a rear bar for our cars similar to their bar for the 1IS.
http://my.is/forums/f201/diy-tuned-p...lation-409323/

Some say that the FSport chassis brace has no measurable or noticeable performance gain. My suspension is pretty stiff to where I can hear the chassis creaking on driveways and it creaks around the moonroof area. With the chassis brace installed, the noise disappeared. When performing turns on some streets, the car would rock side to side from what I thought was road imperfections. The rocking was reduced after the brace, leading me to believe that the chassis underwent twisting forces.

Kurtz

iTrader: (1)

I mean exactly what I said. The 2IS suspension doesn't have struts.

The 2IS has shocks, We have double wishbone front suspension and multilink rear suspension. Neither of these depend on the upper shock mount for wheel geometry control.

Struts generally appear on Macpherson suspensions.

Struts are a locating part of a suspension, shocks are not. There's a difference.

On a double-wishbone setup the wheel assembly is independent of the shock assembly... when the wheel assembly turns, the shock assembly is stationary.

On a Macpherson setup the wheel is located below the spring and shock assembly. The spring and shock assembly sits on a ball joint of a single lower arm connected by a tie rod. The single lower arm is usually an "A" arm. The top piston rod is used as a swivel axis. This is necessary, because with a Macpherson suspension, when the wheel is turned, the whole suspension system turns with the wheel.


I've seen a decent engineering/physics reason why a strut tower bar on a car that actually has struts could make a small improvement to handling...here's a good one:
http://team99ers.2.forumer.com/index.php?showtopic=702


Not so much a car that doesn't have struts at all though since the shock tower doesn't control wheel geometry since, again, shocks aren't a locating part of the suspension like struts are.



While I imagine a rigid bar might reduce some creaks on a tight suspension, unless the car already has a massively upgraded suspension otherwise (corner balanced coilovers, lightweight wheels with very very sticky tires, etc...) I'd be willing to be money that the same car won't run any faster a time around a track with chasis brace bars on it compared to one without em. Thus if you do them at all they should be the absolute last thing you do to your suspension. (and even then I'd be surprised if the average driver could make a repeatable time improvement with just a strut tower brace as the change in the car).





No, as noted, that's the sway bars. Which are quite different things and do improve handling, so much so I recommend them as the first mod anyone with a 2IS get.

Sffd103

iTrader: (16)

GT Spec FTW?

MrBBQ

iTrader: (9)

Yep, you're mixing up sway bars and "strut" bars. Sffd's long brace across the engine is a "strut bar.". Pictures below are my F-Sport sway bars, front and back.

Slammer1

The strut bar looks sweet, but what I want is Sffd103's carbon fiber engine cover and front panel.