Tanabe or Cusco tower bar?

[fatoni]

Originally Posted by Mitch

What are your thoughts on the differences between hinged and solid bars? Every company that offers a solid bar points out the difference, while those that sell hinged bars don't usually acknowledge the differences.

imo that little website is pretty dumb. the point of a strut bar is not to keep the parts from moving up. it simply cant. the only things that i can think of that do that are gravity and downforce. as far as i can tell, the point is to keep the shock towers the same distance from eachother, which hinges do not deter from.

imho, strut bars for modern cars are more about marketing than performance. despite my efforts, i have never seen any data on any strut tower bar and that seems a bit unusual to me

[JoeBoxer]

What kind of data do you want? All the numbers in the world won't tell you how it feels in the drivers seat, i don't think they are a neccessity by any means but none of the aftermarket parts are, it's just fine stock but if it makes the customer feel like they got their moneys worth than its a good purchase/value.

[White64Goat]

Can you post up a shot of the whole engine bay with the Whiteline installed? I noticed they used all 3 strut tower bolts AND one of the tower to firewall studs.

[JoeBoxer]

Damn pic came out bad, going to detail and do a photoshoot tomorrow and will get a better one. Sticker is lined up just looks off from the angle, you have to put it on yourself which i don't like and the bar doesn't come assembled for some reason they leave 2 washers and nuts in the bag and it falls apart when you pick it up. Unless somebody sabotaged me and loosened the nuts lol.

Originally Posted by White64Goat

Can you post up a shot of the whole engine bay with the Whiteline installed? I noticed they used all 3 strut tower bolts AND one of the tower to firewall studs.

[schtebie]

Originally Posted by White64Goat

Can you post up a shot of the whole engine bay with the Whiteline installed? I noticed they used all 3 strut tower bolts AND one of the tower to firewall studs.

The mounting points look identical to the Cusco Type OS bar.

[fatoni]

Originally Posted by JoeBoxer

What kind of data do you want? All the numbers in the world won't tell you how it feels in the drivers seat, i don't think they are a neccessity by any means but none of the aftermarket parts are, it's just fine stock but if it makes the customer feel like they got their moneys worth than its a good purchase/value.

i dont know really. it would be nice to know how much they reduce the flex in the area. i know that numbers wont tell you how something feels. i also know that feel may change purely by placebo. it just always strikes me as strange how this is the only area of the aftermarket (as far as i can tell) where there is no objective data. its like springs not giving spring rates or shocks not having shock dynos. well its not that bad but its along the same lines.

[JoeBoxer]

Originally Posted by schtebie

The mounting points look identical to the Cusco Type OS bar.

damn they are almost identical except for the color, whiteline i can actually sell cheaper

[chimera118]

Originally Posted by fatoni

i dont know really. it would be nice to know how much they reduce the flex in the area. i know that numbers wont tell you how something feels. i also know that feel may change purely by placebo. it just always strikes me as strange how this is the only area of the aftermarket (as far as i can tell) where there is no objective data. its like springs not giving spring rates or shocks not having shock dynos. well its not that bad but its along the same lines.

it would be nice to have actual data. the amount of flex reduced might not be a good value to measure since its hard to analyze that qualitatively, but cornering speeds and the like might be. after i installed front and rear struts on my 2000 integra i was able to take some corners 5-10 mph faster than before. and the feel was so much better. the car felt more planted to the ground, there was a lot less body roll and i felt more confident cornering.

im actually contemplating getting strut bars for my brz since the handling is already so good and there are those two bars already.

[fatoni]

Originally Posted by chimera118

it would be nice to have actual data. the amount of flex reduced might not be a good value to measure since its hard to analyze that qualitatively, but cornering speeds and the like might be. after i installed front and rear struts on my 2000 integra i was able to take some corners 5-10 mph faster than before. and the feel was so much better. the car felt more planted to the ground, there was a lot less body roll and i felt more confident cornering.

im actually contemplating getting strut bars for my brz since the handling is already so good and there are those two bars already.

we measure everything quantitatively. things like hp or spring rates are good enough for every engine or suspension mod. you have to start with quantitative data.

did you add shocks or shock towers? if its shocks, it makes sense to replace worn out shocks and gain cornering speeds and lose some body roll. if you are talking about a shock towers (which are less necessary than strut towers) then they might gain cornering speed although nowhere near 5-10 mph on a contemporary car. shock/strut tower bars also have no effect on body roll.

[chimera118]

Originally Posted by fatoni

we measure everything quantitatively. things like hp or spring rates are good enough for every engine or suspension mod. you have to start with quantitative data.

i know what you mean. i would like to see some real data too. im just trying to guess why there is no data and that was my take on it. that's why i brought up the fact that it might be more useful to measure something like cornering speeds or maybe slalom speeds or times. like an x amount of decrease in chassis flex translates to a y increase in slalom speed or z decrease in time. im not an expert just a casual car fan so maybe someone else can chime in on this.

it might be that strut bars are just more of a feeling type of mod.

Originally Posted by fatoni

did you add shocks or shock towers? if its shocks, it makes sense to replace worn out shocks and gain cornering speeds and lose some body roll. if you are talking about a shock towers (which are less necessary than strut towers) then they might gain cornering speed although nowhere near 5-10 mph on a contemporary car. shock/strut tower bars also have no effect on body roll.

no just strut tower bars. the car may have been capable of taking those corners 5-10 mph faster already. i was trying to state that it felt like there was less body roll because of the reduction in chassis flex and i felt more confident which allowed me to take them that much faster. i should have been more clear.