Cusco Braces Review

[Unleashed]

So I started my day yesterday with the intentions of getting my windows tinted and oil changed/car serviced. Got the tint done, very happy with the results, and made my way to the dealership. Long story short, while the car was being serviced I ended up buying several Cusco parts and made plans to buy the rest at a later date. This is to serve as a write up based on my personal experience with the parts so far. Enjoy.

Parts

CUSCO Front OS Type Strut Bar w/Master Brake Cylinder Stop
CUSCO Rear Side Crossmember Powerbace
CUSCO Front Crossmember Powerbace


Install

Very simple and straight forward despite the lack of English on the direction. The pictures help orientate yourself and do a good job of helping visually spot the mounting points of each product.

CUSCO Front OS Type Strut Bar w/Master Brake Cylinder Stop
By far the easiest piece to put on the car. Just simply remove the strut tower bolts, back out the brake stop bolt to make room for install, loosen the adjustment on the strut bar, drop on the aligned holes, tighten each one snug, check fitment and then tighten all the way down.


CUSCO Rear Side Crossmember Powerbace
These two pieces were pretty easy to install as well. You can figure out the mounting points from the pictures.

CUSCO Front Crossmember Powerbace
For this piece you will have to remove the skid plate and plastice piece underbody panel in order to install it. Both pieces fit perfectly back over it. Be sure to take pics of it before buttoning everything up.

Driving Impressions

WOW! What a difference in feel, response, and body roll. I can really feel the road now when turning in and the car just seems to stick, even with these Prius tires. Turn-in response is immediate and tight, takes the little bit of slop in the front end that the car had completely out. Bodyroll is almost non existent! It will be gone once I get the rest of the pieces and coilovers.

Thanks for reading, leave comments and questions!

[ModBargains.com]

Gotta love Cusco, they really went all out on the FRS parts. Great write up!

[fatoni]

im going to assume that is all the placebo effect because im pretty sure none of that stuff affects the body roll in the least

[Unleashed]

Originally Posted by fatoni

im going to assume that is all the placebo effect because im pretty sure none of that stuff affects the body roll in the least

I respectively must disagree with you. If all these braces reduce chassis flex, it's going to reduce the affects of body roll, or feeling of body roll.

Either way the cornering ability is severely increased!

[fatoni]

Originally Posted by Unleashed

I respectively must disagree with you. If all these braces reduce chassis flex, it's going to reduce the affects of body roll, or feeling of body roll.

Either way the cornering ability is severely increased!

yeah this is one of those topics where the community is split in two. im glad you like the products. the responsiveness might change but body roll itself is primarily a function of spring rates and the distance from the roll axis and the cog.

[ST185RC]

Originally Posted by Unleashed

Either way the cornering ability is severely increased!

You make it sound like it's a bad thing.

[JPxM0Dz]

I have all these installed also., in addition a rear strut brace. As far as making a real difference, I can't say for certain, but even if it's marginal, it"s better than the opposite.
Brake stop on front brace I definitely feel a difference in braking.
If nothing else, gotta love the eye candy!

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

[Unleashed]

Originally Posted by ST185RC

You make it sound like it's a bad thing.

Ha yeah I guess that does make it sound bad. It's not bad at all and we all know that.

[zoomzoomers]

[Unleashed]

Originally Posted by zoomzoomers

I will post pics as soon as I get home

[serial gixxer]

Originally Posted by JPxM0Dz

I have all these installed also., in addition a rear strut brace. As far as making a real difference, I can't say for certain, but even if it's marginal, it"s better than the opposite.
Brake stop on front brace I definitely feel a difference in braking.
If nothing else, gotta love the eye candy!

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

I also have the rear strut bar. If anything, it works great as a trunk organizer! It has helped keep my groceries and other items from sliding around. I love it! lol

[Unleashed]

I forgot to take pics of the back, I'll do it when I install my Invidia Catback and wheels later this week.

[illusivema70]

Originally Posted by fatoni

im going to assume that is all the placebo effect because im pretty sure none of that stuff affects the body roll in the least

I will take 10 doses of placebo please bartender! I am going to have to disagree with you wholeheartedly. If you do not drive your vehicle aggressively before and after the install then you might not truly appreciate the "placebo" effect of these awesome braces. I will tell you that they "feel" amazing, help reduce the minor flex the car has and the take off and braking feels so much "crisper". Either way there should be no disagreement that this allows the suspension cycle in a more responsive manner.

agree to disagree?

Thanks for supporting me in my performance sales venture @ Unleashed, can't wait to try out the coilovers.

[Captain Snooze]

Hypothesis : If there were benefits of a tower brace then the manufacture would have installed one.

I am suggesting that strut braces are relatively inexpensive to make, very little in the way of cons (the only thing i can think of is extra weight). I am also suggesting there would be more benefit in fitting higher durometer bushings as I think there would be more flex in the bushings than in the chassis.
I would like to see the results of this:

Originally Posted by Jason@Nameless

Regarding measuring chassis deflection, this car is PRIME for something I've been wanting to do for a long time: Put a few 1000-2000lb load cells into a pair of bars and test the factory setup!!! I've got a load cell logger and just sent my one load cell back to the manufacturer to be recal'd because it pooped the bed. I'm going to have them ship me two back so I can watch a few things at once for a change.
Jason

Please note this post is just conjecture on my part.