Got the strut brace onto the SiR

[Setanta]

Ok - I had to unbolt the aircon brcket from the firewall and move it out a bit to fit the brace mount on the passengers (LH) side.

Not so bad but the drivers side was even more of a pain - resulting in having to undo the fuse box and then unbolt the wiring looms from the firewall as well. Fuse box bolted back up, and it still looks factory - so the spoon strut brace is go

Mind you, even though it was made for a EF8 SiR CRX, it only just cleared the vacume unit on the intake manifold - try half a millimeter clearance. I may have to raise the brace's mounts with a 1mm washer on each side to improve clearance to this - but so far there is no sign of the engine moving significantly and the two touching - I haven't put the boot in yet though

Anyway - there is a big difference - you can feel how tight the front end is now - corners are more precise and the car just feels right

Pics below:

SiR engine bay with brace installed:


Clearing the aircon piping (I've actually got another few mm out of the clearance since the pic was taken:



Still a tight fit - what clearance over the vacume control unit? Actually - this was why I couldn't use an Aussie brace - they were designed for the ZC and D15 twin-sidedraft carb setup and ran straight through this unit:

[FourthGenHatch]

You could have probably used a Neuspeed one, unless you are strictly JDM.

[bracer]

Or a Tenzo-R, fits great on EE9/EF9's

But hey, looks great man
So far for keeping it stock

[crxlvr]

damn you and ur SIR's over there, send me your car and ill send you mine, so you can feel LHD

[Setanta]

Originally posted by crxlvr
damn you and ur SIR's over there, send me your car and ill send you mine, so you can feel LHD

LOL - SiR singular. It's the only one in the country other than 1 or 2 EF8 CRXs. All private imports. It's the damn Kiwis that have all the SiRs - bastards

FourthGenHatch: Yeah - trying to stay as JDM as possible - and the spoon cost me 125 bucks Australian - that's about 60 bucks US - that's why I have it

Bracer: Well, it can be returned to stock by unbolting it so all is good Damn it makes a HUGE difference to the handling though

[Moppie]

It looks good!

Im amazed it made such a differnce to the handling though.
Makes me want one even more!!

:finger:

[Setanta]

Originally posted by Moppie
It looks good!

Im amazed it made such a differnce to the handling though.
Makes me want one even more!!

:finger:

Huge difference moppie - frigging enormous. Going into a corner my car would roll quite heavily compared to now - 150km/h around a sweeping bend in the mountains and only the slightest amount of roll. I was going to put a bigger rear bar on to beat the roll - now I might just go to an 18 over the 14.5 instead of the 22 I was planning.

No-where near as tailey as it got (spunkymunky can attest to it's ability to spit the tail out - she was following in the VTiR 'teg last week) - full contact of both wheels to the ground even under tough conditions (IE me really putting the boot in).

I can't recommend it enough - I expected a little difference - what I got was an entirely different car as a result.

I need to shim it up higher though - the clearance worries me - but I hammered it gearing back a few times through the mountains on a cruise today - 8200 territory and it looks like the engine doesn't rock too much at all

[Moppie]

Oh I know all about the oversteer!
Its lots of fun, but it can get a bit hairy under hard braking.

I suppose though that if you look at how light weight the standard chassis is, and how little hp the standard cars have to ours, along with all the under chassis mods, suspension, subframes etc it make sense that they must suffer from some bad chassis flex.
(it probobly explains why my bonnet is now sitting about 20mm higher at the catch than it used to).

But also remember that your not running standard weight springs, so any flex will be amplified, and so of course will any effect from a strut brace.
That said Im deffinitly going to be enqiuring about making one for my car.
(check your mail)

[FourthGenHatch]

Strut Bars don't really improve handling, they just make steering a lot easier and smoother. They basically help hold the 2 sides of the car together so around turns it doesn't flex and creak it is held together.

[Moppie]

It depends on the amount of flex occuring.
If its enough to alter the suspension geometry then a Strut bar will have a noticalbe and improving effect.
And in a little car with twice as much hp as it was ever designed for I would say that there would be enough flex to alter camber, caster and toe angles, all things that the SiR is very VERY sensitive to.

[ci5ic]

Strut Bars don't really improve handling, they just make steering a lot easier and smoother

Once again, I would say that smoother, easier steering IS an improvement in handling.

[Setanta]

Agreed ci5ic - I can't think of a better definition somehow More to the point, the car is now more precise in entering and leaving corners, not to mention more surefooted in maintaining tyre contact to the road.

If that isn't better handling then I don't know what is

Maybe there's another definition of "better handling" that I've missed