Door Stabilizers?
 

How much difference to they really make?

I'm curious on both how much they helped the Gen1 and Gen2 cars, but mostly Gen2 since that's what I drive. My question is whether all the stiffening they did to improve Gen2 reduces the value of putting door stabilizers in the car.

This is the first sports car I've owned in... well, more than a few years, so it feels absolutely tight as a drum to me. And most of what I've read about the door stabilizers is that they... wait for it... stabilize the doors.

Fantastic. But what does that MEAN? I don't have a problem with the door rattling around or flexing in any way that I've noticed. If I spend $150 on this and can't tell any difference I'm going to consider that wasted money.

No way to know unless you do install them. I only installed them cause I got them for relatively cheap and mostly cause I was bored. I would have never paid retail for them. Can you feel the difference? Yes, the doors don't shimmy when they're closed, fewer rattles and squeaks coming from the doors. Difference during cornering? Not gonna feel it, especially if you have other mods. Focus on other mods instead. I HIGHLY recommend STI engine and trans mounts (I have Perrin engine mounts and STI trans mount myself). Completely transforms the car. Want even more positive changes, do the diff and subframe bushings. But the stabilizers is more of a cool completionist mod

They make the doors feel more solid when you are closing them.
The first time I installed them I could have sworn they made the car steer differently, but it's likely placebo effect.
For $150? It's nice bling but you'd probably get more out of $150 spent on camber bolts and a alignment.

I did notice less window rattles when I crack the window down partially as the door doesn't move as much.

I have them on my FR-S and I really can’t tell the difference on or off the track

Unless you're tracking your car on racing suspension and you pay very close attention to your performance and the way lateral forces are affecting the vehicle behavior you're not going to notice a thing.

And for anyone who autocrosses - These are not street or street touring class legal.

As said above, there less rattle in the doors when you drive on rough tarmac.

I have driven a lot without them and then tried them on the same patch of rough roads. (first gen owner here)

The difference is no more rattles anymore. I also noticed that when driving with the window half open the play in the window glass is gone.

Now that the second gen has a stiffer body, will you really notice a difference?
That's a tough one to answer.

For fun sake i might try to remove them and drive a few days without to notice the lack of it.

They shiney so I like.


Do they really stiffen the car? Probably a little, but nothing that could be considered gamechanging

I installed them on my 2nd gen and didn't notice a difference, but then again the car is mostly stock and on winter tires. I liked the theoretical benefit, and it gave me an excuse to buy a mod that was easy to install. If you get it, try to be steady when removing the bolts so you don't have to realign things.

I had these on a 2005 NB Miata and the biggest effect I found was it made the car feel a bit more solid and less shaky but that's pretty much it. Keep in mind the NB Miata is really squishy compared to a 2nd gen BRZ/86

It seems like that goes for lots of tiny hidden parts like camber bolts. At autocrosses do they ever inspect cars closely enough to disqualify participants for these types of mods?

From my understanding the officials only car if you are competitive. No point in checking cars that are just there to have fun.

Start winning, then yes.

Seriously? LOL some of these rules baffle me..

In SCCA it's up to your competitors to file protest for your car. At national events there is an impound period following competition where you must open your trunk/hood and on rare occasions pull the wheels off one side. Technically no non-compliant car can finish ahead of a compliant one. There are some things like "comfort and convenience" allowances but anything with a stated goal of performance improvement is definitely out. If you aren't winning at a national event level (~200-300 competitors, hosted by SCCA national office, roughly 30 events a year nationwide) then you likely aren't going to be bothered by anyone. If you do something major locally you still would be protested though (like slapping a turbo onto a car in street level).

Most clubs have a novice program of some sort or a time only section for you to race in as a soft landing. Usually people take 2-3 years trying out the sport and fooling around with their car before they make a decision to build towards a class ruleset.

SCCA runs on "allowances" so there are specific lists of allowed parts/modifications. They'd never be able to keep up with the rules if they had to review every part out there. Also what may be a minor improvement on one car could be a major improvement on another so they can't allow something on a per car basis. It's definitely silly sometimes but it's designed that way to prevent costs from becoming prohibitively expensive for people to compete. Pick any part on your car and someone can probably find an aftermarket or custom made part that will improve performance as a replacement. There are classes for this kind of arms race and they're called Prepared and Mod.