ALL* the Cusco bracing - A Review

[Cephas]

Whoa. That's a lotta covers. What are they all supposed to do, just cleaner aero under the car?

[churchx]

cleaner aero/increased downforce/reduced lift without cost of increased drag. Drawbacks .. i guess, slight weight increase, slight cooling decrease for tranny/diff. Overall imho worth doing. Not much ways out there with increasing dowforce w/o paying drag penalty.

[therealstoly]

A final thought or two as I sold my BRZ yesterday. I put about 14K miles on the car with all the bracing and none of the bracing gave me any problems. Nothing had to come out, be replaced, squeaked, rattled, bent, begat some sort of other issue, etc.

My step dad was both a professional Trans-Am race car driver/team owner and a chassis designer so I don't know anything other than... start with the stiffest chassis you can get to eliminate that from all the equations and then proceed to throw copious amounts of money at suspension and cooling. Tires and pads are throwaways and true to my upbringing, I burned through a set of Kumho V730s every oil change. Without regret.

The thing is... it's your car. I can remember taking Bear Creek Road the day after I bought my BRZ and every time it complained, I complained right along with it. Tires were shit, the lean was ungodly, brake dip was like bowing to the Royal Family, and the brake pedal hated me as much as I hated it 10 minutes into it. Steering was weird and I was certain the rear side glass was gonna be the first to go from all the flex the suspension seemed to really enjoy.

Reality was at least six degrees of separation from my first impression. It just didn't behave the way I was raised to expect a car to behave when pushed to do as advertised. There are so many variables and even though I mentioned it, it gets missed every single time. Predictability.

Bracing absolutely comes with Placebo. But it also comes with confidence. And somewhere in there you end up whittling down the variables to a much more manageable number. For you. Your own personal confidence number. So. You can be an internet **** from the PNW, as an example, or... OR. As a counterpoint, you could just keep your fucking mouth shut and not opine on things you know nothing about in first person.

It's your car. grumpy people from down under be damned... if bracing, bushings, or aerodynamic wipers give you more confidence and make you smile, pick that route. I had the most fun doing 14K miles knowing that I'd started with a whole bunch of variables and by the time I was done, I was down to the same two I grew up on. I have just enough ego to know that if I'm being airlifted out on the embankment side of a guardrail, it was either the pads or the tires.

It's your car. Do what you want.

[NoHaveMSG]

Originally Posted by therealstoly

Bracing absolutely comes with Placebo. But it also comes with confidence. And somewhere in there you end up whittling down the variables to a much more manageable number. For you. Your own personal confidence number. So. You can be an internet **** from the PNW, as an example, or... OR. As a counterpoint, you could just keep your fucking mouth shut and not opine on things you know nothing about in first person.

It's your car. grumpy people from down under be damned... if bracing, bushings, or aerodynamic wipers give you more confidence and make you smile, pick that route. I had the most fun doing 14K miles knowing that I'd started with a whole bunch of variables and by the time I was done, I was down to the same two I grew up on. I have just enough ego to know that if I'm being airlifted out on the embankment side of a guardrail, it was either the pads or the tires.

It's your car. Do what you want.

You know you can tag me too right?

Congratulations for missing the two simple points I always bring up when people talk about bracing.

A) People overstate the effects. As you said, there is a fair amount of placebo with bracing.
B) If you really want the performance gain start with bushings. Of course they are more work to install and people you are trying to impress can't see you have all those fancy braces.

[Ultramaroon]

I'm an expert because my daddy was a racecar driver.

[norcalpb]

Idk if anyone has seen this, but this company Soul Function is selling braces at pretty dang discounted prices if anyone wanted to try them out:

https://www.soulfunction.com/collections/brz-frs-zn6

[Tatsu333]

Originally Posted by NoHaveMSG

You know you can tag me too right?

I literally LOL'd when I read that!

Whether I agree or disagree with your opinions when I've read them everywhere across this forum (and I've done both), I love that you own it, 100%.

[glhs386]

Originally Posted by norcalpb

Idk if anyone has seen this, but this company Soul Function is selling braces at pretty dang discounted prices if anyone wanted to try them out:

https://www.soulfunction.com/collections/brz-frs-zn6

I just installed the 4 point lateral brace on Wednesday. I'm not going to claim any noticeable performance benefits, but the quality was pretty nice for $70 shipped and being aluminum it weighs almost nothing. I had to notch some splash shields slightly with a razor blade for clearance, but no big deal.

If I didn't already have a Carbing front subframe brace installed I would have also jumped on the SoulFunction version for $80. Of the braces I've installed that one was the most immediately obvious from behind the wheel, and it's probably the one I'd recommend most to people who are skeptical of braces in general. I believe the GR86 now comes with similar front subframe braces as part of the chassis rigidity upgrades, so that should tell you something.

[norcalpb]

Originally Posted by glhs386

I just installed the 4 point lateral brace on Wednesday. I'm not going to claim any noticeable performance benefits, but the quality was pretty nice for $70 shipped and being aluminum it weighs almost nothing. I had to notch some splash shields slightly with a razor blade for clearance, but no big deal.

If I didn't already have a Carbing front subframe brace installed I would have also jumped on the SoulFunction version for $80. Of the braces I've installed that one was the most immediately obvious from behind the wheel, and it's probably the one I'd recommend most to people who are skeptical of braces in general. I believe the GR86 now comes with similar front subframe braces as part of the chassis rigidity upgrades, so that should tell you something.

Yes the front crossmember brace can be pretty intense. I actually sold mine because it made things a little too stiff for the street driving I was doing at the time.

Do you have a source on the GR86 coming with additional front bracing, that could be potentially swapped over to the first gen?

[NoHaveMSG]

Originally Posted by Tatsu333

I literally LOL'd when I read that!

Whether I agree or disagree with your opinions when I've read them everywhere across this forum (and I've done both), I love that you own it, 100%.

lol

[glhs386]

Originally Posted by norcalpb

Do you have a source on the GR86 coming with additional front bracing, that could be potentially swapped over to the first gen?

I found this image, the braces don't span entirely between the frame rails but it looks like they triangulate the subframe to the unibody. Should serve the same basic function, but I have no idea if they're backwards compatible. Probably not.

Source: https://autos.chinatimes.com/20211104002950-264301

[norcalpb]

Originally Posted by glhs386

I found this image, the braces don't span entirely between the frame rails but it looks like they triangulate the subframe to the unibody. Should serve the basic same function, but I have no idea if they're backwards compatible. Probably not.

Source: https://autos.chinatimes.com/20211104002950-264301

Oh that is awesome!

I was able to find a diagram showing them. At $16/side I may just give them a try assuming those 4 front holes are there.

Subaru part #'s (couldn't find anything on Toyota's website)
50525CC000
50525CC010

[dragoontwo]

Originally Posted by norcalpb

Oh that is awesome!

I was able to find a diagram showing them. At $16/side I may just give them a try assuming those 4 front holes are there.

Subaru part #'s (couldn't find anything on Toyota's website)
50525CC000
50525CC010

There's always rivnuts if they aren't. Assuming the other holes line up nice.

[gpvecchi]

You need the 50515A and B parts, too. They have the holes that are not present in old cars.