Cusco front lower bars installed

[zeropointzero]

installed both the Cusco front lower bars today. pretty straight forward install. you do have to cut the plastic belly pan to fit around the 1 bar.





you have to dremel the plastic off that surrounds this screw. (1 on each side)





sorry for the blurry photo, on my back under the car isn't exactly the most comfortable place to take a photo.



torque setting for all of these bolts is 69 ft lbs.

[taikahn]

Nice, how's it feel?

[northbridge]

^+1

[zeropointzero]

my favorite twisty was crowded when i went out for a test drive. gimme a day or so and i will give some input.

[91CRXTC]

[CRZ_for_me]

Looks good but I would be surprised if you felt a difference. Been on more forums than I can remember in my life and I have heard everything from "strut bars don't work" all the way to "they are great". Both viewpoints would have stickys explaining why.

Anyways, it probably depends on the car. CR-Z supposedly has the stiffness of a CTR so it don't know how much more stiffening it needs.

Also, you may not been able to feel a difference unless the car is pushed to its limits and at the very limit, the bars may allow you to go this much further, for example.

But what do I know?? I've never bought a strut bar for any car I've owned so who knows.

[northbridge]

^ those arent strut bars...

[CRZ_for_me]

Originally Posted by northbridge

^ those arent strut bars...

hahaha you're right. Just noticed that I was saying strut bar. My sentiment is the same though for any chassis bar type of setup. The question is do we know that the CRZ will benefit or is the chassis already stiff enough??

[zeropointzero]

so far in all my driving, the rear hatch area is what's been making noise. i have had a couple of pops and cracks when taking turns overly aggressive. i am going to work on the rear next.

i have the HKS Kansai rear tower brace sitting in my garage. it's not installed because i have to pull the entire rear hatch plastic out to install the bar. total PITA install.

the front lower bars are fine and are relatively inexpensive. i haven't decided on an upper front strut bar because i am waiting on the MFG's to tell me how they attach to the chassis. HKS Kansai looks to attach near the front struts but there are no bolts in that area. the Cusco, attaches to the front sheet metal which is very thin and i don't know if that's going to work.

[taikahn]

^yeah the strut bars on the market are kind janky so far. Not sure we will see an effective one for this car due to the design of the engine bay and strut tops.

As for the under braces, they should be immensely noticeable.