Circuit Sport (Alutec) Strut Bar
#1
11-29-2010, 07:54 PM
Circuit Sport (Alutec) Strut Bar
I had the liberty of being able to “score” this one for a fairly reasonably price, thanks in part to the phenomenon that is Black Friday. Here are some photos of the product. My initial comment is…
… that this thing is very well built. I’m impressed by the welds and just the overall feel of the piece. I’ve never handled a strut bar this well made in the past (I have had other cars prior to the G35 you know). It’s also very lightweight, mainly because the whole piece is made out of aluminum. In one of the photos there’s a spot with three holes that if you look really closely in real life, you’ll see the triple chambers advertised by CS.
Updates on post #10.
http://gshack.org/?p=241
postscript: I'm no engineer, but i've always felt that solid bars were better than the typical design of strut bars with the bolts holding the middle section to the end plates. Given that i got this for roughly 3/4 the price of a competing brand, i've really got nothing to lose
Just a word of caution, this apparently won't work with CAI's because of how the pipes come out of the TB's. Edit: mishmosh just confirmed it fits over his CAI with plenty of space to spare, thanks m!
… that this thing is very well built. I’m impressed by the welds and just the overall feel of the piece. I’ve never handled a strut bar this well made in the past (I have had other cars prior to the G35 you know). It’s also very lightweight, mainly because the whole piece is made out of aluminum. In one of the photos there’s a spot with three holes that if you look really closely in real life, you’ll see the triple chambers advertised by CS.
Updates on post #10.
http://gshack.org/?p=241
postscript: I'm no engineer, but i've always felt that solid bars were better than the typical design of strut bars with the bolts holding the middle section to the end plates. Given that i got this for roughly 3/4 the price of a competing brand, i've really got nothing to lose
Just a word of caution, this apparently won't work with CAI's because of how the pipes come out of the TB's. Edit: mishmosh just confirmed it fits over his CAI with plenty of space to spare, thanks m!
Last edited by soundmike; 12-18-2010 at 09:51 AM.
#2
11-29-2010, 07:59 PM
From Alutec's site:
And some generic shop photos:
Material –
The mounting is used by aerospace quality aluminum material. Its high hardness provides reinforcement between the top of the shock absorber and the body. This can prevent the shape changed. For the material that we use for bar is Aluminum 6061, which is more flexible than Aluminum 7005. Due to its give, the structure of the bar won’t
be changed when the bar and the car body are pulling and dragging.
Weight –
By using aerospace quality aluminum material, the weight is controlled around 1.5KG to achieve lightweight
Structure –
The bar is with inner twin I-beam cross-section design and the tensile strength for every square mm2 can bear over 35KG, which is 30% higher than the similar products.
The mounting is used by aerospace quality aluminum material. Its high hardness provides reinforcement between the top of the shock absorber and the body. This can prevent the shape changed. For the material that we use for bar is Aluminum 6061, which is more flexible than Aluminum 7005. Due to its give, the structure of the bar won’t
be changed when the bar and the car body are pulling and dragging.
Weight –
By using aerospace quality aluminum material, the weight is controlled around 1.5KG to achieve lightweight
Structure –
The bar is with inner twin I-beam cross-section design and the tensile strength for every square mm2 can bear over 35KG, which is 30% higher than the similar products.
#5
11-29-2010, 09:15 PM
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#7
11-30-2010, 12:23 AM
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#8
11-30-2010, 12:26 AM
Actually just pulled up one of the SB i saw long long time a ago CS SB if its the same one then it should fit over AM intakes as well and that too at such a great price, if i remember right the only reason i did not get it was because i read somewhere that it was not a good fit with the liner and the towers, oh boy i really hope they were wrong or this is in fact an improved design.
#9
11-30-2010, 08:08 AM
LOL, i'm sure it's sturdy, although i'd like to think i don't weigh anywhere near what a car would, it surely held the pressure i put on it <g>.
I'll try to put it on this weekend and chime back. It's good if it fits other AM intakes (i.e. CAI's), i was just going by what others on MyG37 mentioned. One had theirs on an Injen SRI (what i have) without issue mainly because the OEM accordion's are still in place.
p.s. CerveloR3-SL, got mine from FRSport.com
I'll try to put it on this weekend and chime back. It's good if it fits other AM intakes (i.e. CAI's), i was just going by what others on MyG37 mentioned. One had theirs on an Injen SRI (what i have) without issue mainly because the OEM accordion's are still in place.
p.s. CerveloR3-SL, got mine from FRSport.com
#10
11-30-2010, 09:33 PM
So i decided to go ahead and install it tonight. The only issue i encountered was that the adjustment **** for my coilovers got in the way. The only options were to remove the *****, or grind down the strut bar. I went with the former, it was just a couple of 14mm nuts anyway.
Fitment-wise, IMHO it's perfect. It does rub a little on the hood liner (i didn't have powder so went with the next best thing... a spritz of quick detailer on the bar, whatever got the hood liner wet would be the areas that rub). I personally don't think this is a problem since the rub is minimal and it's not blocking anything.
By comparison, on my old Maxima, pretty much any strut bar would hit the hood liner and crimp the wiper fluid hose, impeding flow.
Here are a couple more photos along with a short vid clip with the car revved first in reverse then again forward, to give an idea of how much the engine moves without actually hitting the bar. The G-Spec bar provides 2 CC's stacked worth of space, there's much more here so there's no risk of the engine hitting the bar.
Quick spritz
The **** here is just touching the bar, no tension or pressure at all.
There's more space on the right than the left, there's limited adjustability with the bar (you can slide it left-right, if facing the engine, before bolting it down. I left it like this to provide more space for the engine to move when going forward).
The wet areas show where it rubs.
Video, played back at 70% (explains the weird soundtrack).
Fitment-wise, IMHO it's perfect. It does rub a little on the hood liner (i didn't have powder so went with the next best thing... a spritz of quick detailer on the bar, whatever got the hood liner wet would be the areas that rub). I personally don't think this is a problem since the rub is minimal and it's not blocking anything.
By comparison, on my old Maxima, pretty much any strut bar would hit the hood liner and crimp the wiper fluid hose, impeding flow.
Here are a couple more photos along with a short vid clip with the car revved first in reverse then again forward, to give an idea of how much the engine moves without actually hitting the bar. The G-Spec bar provides 2 CC's stacked worth of space, there's much more here so there's no risk of the engine hitting the bar.
Quick spritz
The **** here is just touching the bar, no tension or pressure at all.
There's more space on the right than the left, there's limited adjustability with the bar (you can slide it left-right, if facing the engine, before bolting it down. I left it like this to provide more space for the engine to move when going forward).
The wet areas show where it rubs.
Video, played back at 70% (explains the weird soundtrack).
#11
12-01-2010, 01:49 AM
Wow, thats some review, thanks for all the hard work to get us all the info we might need, now i got to confirm that it will fit over my intakes and ima get these and then powder coat it. Thanks again for all ur effort!
Oh also can u just take one shot from further away, i want to see how it look in the bay and how much clearance with the stock intake pipes. THANKS!!
Oh also can u just take one shot from further away, i want to see how it look in the bay and how much clearance with the stock intake pipes. THANKS!!
#12
12-01-2010, 03:31 AM
#13
12-01-2010, 06:42 AM
#14
12-01-2010, 10:39 AM
..... I'm no engineer, but i've always felt that solid bars were better than the typical design of strut bars with the bolts holding the middle section to the end plates. Given that i got this for roughly 3/4 the price of a competing brand, i've really got nothing to lose Just a word of caution, this apparently won't work with CAI's because of how the pipes come out of the TB's.
Just a word of caution, this apparently won't work with CAI's because of how the pipes come out of the TB's.
All bar designs have plus & minus points....
1. bars like the GT-Spec that have a cross bolt mount aren't the best design.
That bolt can act as a hinge, which is counter productive to stabilizing the towers.
2. With a solid one piece bar (Alutec), it's the over sized mounting holes that are the weak part wrt stability.
3. The bar on my BMW (Strongstrut) is the other common design. It has tight fitting tower rings, but relies on a slotted adjustment for the bar. ....it's weak point.
IMO I would MUCH prefer a bar that uses clamping force (#2 or 3) than a hinge bolt design.
