Originally Posted by sciff5

I had my own made custom and I lost little to no ground clearence and if I do scrape the SFCs act like a skid plate.

I have pics of the custom setup in my car domain page. And I created a thread talking about what type of tubing I used and thickness.

But to sum it up

90 wall DOM mild steel tubing, Migged in place with some paint to coat it and some 3m (only use 3m dont use the cheap stuff) rubberized undercoat.

Originally Posted by irish44j

Today I had the SFCs installed by Piper Motorsports - probably one of the most respected race shops on the east coast. These guys do mostly serious racecars (i.e. they don't install Stillen body kits or intakes, haha), and are well known in this area for building roll bars and roll cages for spec racecars and autocrossers.

I was lucky to get in because of a cancellation, since they usually have a 2-3 month backlog for work. I also will note that in Northern Virginia labor costs are high at shops like this ($85/hour per person) so i expected to pay a couple hunski for the job.

So, what you all want to hear about now:

The fit: The GM commented to me that the SFCs "looked like someone made them in his garage," as some of the tabs were not level and were either too high or too low - the obviously could have been caused by my old, beat frame as well. He did, however, say that it would "do the job just fine." They had no problem re-adjusting everything, but it did take them a little while (which cost me more). They could not make enough room to "flip" the center brace and crossbrace as I had hoped, unfortunately.

The job: looks strong and clean to me. These guys build serious racecars, so I wouldn't expect anything less.

Test drive:
1. It's hard to find crappy roads in this area. I found myself looking for off-the-beaten-path road with rough surfaces and alot of pothole repairs. Hard to find around here!
2. Ride quality: Previously, when hitting any bump, big or small, the car would have a tendacy to "shudder" and feel a bit uncomposed - and it would be worse the bigger the bump. With the SFCs on, bumps basically just come off as a "thud" and the car no longer vibrates or shudders as it did. This was the most noticeable improvement in the SFCs, hands down. Also, interior rattles on rough roads are almost entirely eliminated, which is very nice.
3. Weight: Although some might not notice, I'm pretty in tune with my car and I can definitely feel the weight of the SFCs. Not such that I feel "slower" off the line or anything. Just that the car feels a bit "heavier."
4. Cornering: I actually feel like the car understeers a little more now. I need to go throw it around some twistier roads though and get a better feel for it. I did do some highway sweepers and the car leans a bit less - though I didn't feel like I could "take them faster" as some people have claimed. The exception is on bumpy offramp/onramp sweepers, where the car doesn't "skip" as much now on the bumps and feels more planted. On smooth roads though there doesn't seem to be much difference.
5. Quick lane-change: More responsive, though I car really feel how soft my Proxes4 are.
6. Dips/uneven areas: I can better "feel" each individual corner (spring/strut) working on its own. hard to explain, but the suspension is definitely "doing its job" more now than before.
7. Ground clearance: I managed to clear smaller and medium speed bumps with no scraping at very low speeds. There are some bigger ones at my office that I will try on Monday The crossbrace center section sits about as low as my LTB (LOW), but the LTB is between the wheels so doesn't scrape on speedbumps. I have a feeling it WILL drag on my work speedbumps. I'd really like to see the center section redesigned to allow more clearance, honestly. It could go up at least an inch and still clear the exhaust easily (when the factory crossbrace is removed). I am considering just taking off the crossbrace because it really sits pretty damn low - and I'm on Eibachs, which are not nearly as low as some of you with other springs/coilovers have.

Overall: I think it is worth the money ($300+250install), but would stop short of calling it "drastic improvement" as some have. I think it is a good upgrade, and I came in with low expectations so I wasn't disappointed. Just don't think it will make your car handle like a Lotus.

It doesn't make the car feel like a "5-series BMW," quite - but it does make my tired 125k 7-year-old Maxima feel like a NEW Maxima, and that's worth it for me.

I know you guys will be very disappointed though - I didnt take any pics up on the lift - at the rate they charged, i didn't want to slow them down at all, heh.

BTW, they didn't use a true 4-post lift, but a 2post with a long "scissor" that supported the subframe very far forward and back. I asked about if this was OK, and the GM's answer made me confident that it would not be an issue (and I'm very cynical usually). Not to mention the $100k+ spec racing porsche a couple lifts down having bracing installed on the same kind of lift.

Here are a few snapshots I took, though most are not of the SFCs, sorry. I'll try to take better pics in a few days - but you guys all know what they look like anyways....

it's lower than it looks here...

Originally Posted by Stormzusmc

I'll see what Shawn says about it when I talk with him.

Would this be a determining factor for you if it was round/square or just a preference?

Originally Posted by ObsidianIce69

I'm sort of interested in these for a 4th get i30. There aren't going to be any problems with delivery are there? I vaguely remember some issues previously.