Hey all, yet another question for the autocrossers concerning strut tower bars. Right now, i have an 01' I30, bone stock. To put it frankly, the thing just does not feel sharp when it comes to handling. I was wondering if front and rear strut tower bars could help this out a bit. My curiosity was further peaked when I checked out what was under the hood of a friend's later gen Q45 - a FSTB! And stock? "Why does my car not have one?" i thought. Apparantly that is a good question - do they really help? Do i need both? Will I notice an improvement if I do install them? And if so, is any particular company better than the others? Someone please shed some light on this matter, I would greatly appreciate it!

 

Getting a brace for the front towers makes the car feel more solid, and turn in bettter. Skip the brace on the rear. Instead put a rear sway bar on the car. It reduces the understeer inherent in the car and makes it feel more neutral in corners and under control in the transitions. You can do both for less than $200 total. Highly recommended, it's like a whole other car.

 

i would say that your friend has the Q45 T. which is the higher performance model. im not shur though. from what i hear. you have the I30 and not the I30 T .which again. means its a performance model. the Front strut tower brace (i think) comes with the "T" models. so thats why you dont have one stock. the FSTB is one of the best performance features you can make. the front end feels more planted down and is flatter around the curves.

 

hey, what's wrong w/ RSTB yeah, I agree w/ this kid, get yourself a STILLEN sway bar and any FSTB, that would do a lot of good, I have a RSTB and I felt a difference, but I already had GC+Koni+RSB+FSTB so the difference was small but noticible.

also, what you would find out that if you change rims/tires that would help also, when I go from 15" rims stock to 16" 300zx rims it's like night and day

good luck

 

FSTB - any.

I got mine from member "StealthMax" & I love it. (Search for his post in the For Sale forum) Made the front of the car feel far more planted & stable in hard cornering.

RASB - Stillen or Addco (if Stillen, try to buy one used)

RSTB - don't bother - you won't feel much benefit from this mod, imho.

 

Alot of people say this but the truth is the rtb only makes a difference if you push your car's handling past 75%. I've tried auto-xing the car with and with out it and the difference is noticeable. If you don't plan on driving your car that hard then don't worry about it.

Blade

 

rtb?

 

Rear Tower Brace

 

oops. Rear tower brace or Rear Strut Tower Brace. My bad I meant RSTB.

 

I agree that it makes some difference. I should have explained myself a little better:

What I meant to imply was - if anyone is thinking of adding a RSTB to make the car handle better, with the goal of reducing their lap times, they would already have to be a VERY fast and more importantly, a VERY CONSISTENT driver to see any appreciable gains.

Having said that, I'm of the opinion that a RSTB is a low-priority suspension/handling mod that is best added after a driver has honed his skills by logging considerable "seat-time."