A few weeks ago at 3am I was surfing autotrader just to see what used Gs were going for. Lo and behold I see a guy selling a nearly brand new G in the area and I clicked on the pics to check out his car. I couldn't believe when I saw that an otherwise bone stock G had an ARC strut bar on it!! Pretty cool since this was the last major addition I wanted for the car.

So, I sent him an email and worked out a deal to pick up his bar yesterday.

The bar is ultra-light. At one point the bar was sitting in its box on top of his truck and a gust of wind blew the box to the ground--that's how light the entire bar is.


On to the install.

I performed the install in 30 minutes with the car on the ground, under load the entire time. The install was as easy as it gets.

The fitment of the bar is perfect and there is no need to remove the engine cover with the 5/16 spacer. The bar sits right across the engine cover nice and flush. No issues at all with hood clearance were seen at this time.


And the ride:

I have Tokico adjustable shocks, Tein 350Z Stechs and Stillen sways set at full stiff back, mid stiff front. So, while the car was much better than stock without the strut bar, I could always still feel that roll of the top half of the car where there was not support.

After the bar install, all I can say is WOW! The strut bar did exactly what I wanted it to: keeps the car flat in turns and ultra-responsive to steering input on the road. Makes the whole car feel waaay tighter.

And the secondary success story is that one of the squeeks that I used to have near my dashboard, especially when it was cold, is gone!!! I think the bar keeping the car from flexing as much helped out here as well.


For all of you waiting on the replica bars, if they perform anything like the ACR (which I assume they will), get your names on the list! But, for those of you that are going to run the bar without adjustable sways and other suspension mods, you may be less impressed than I was since the lower half of the car is still going to roll unless you do swaybars there as well.

All in all, though, what a great mod! It makes my G feel much tighter like our Z. I have no idea why they didn't put a strut bar on the G to begin with!!!

 

wow...that is great. Take some pics man.

 

Thanks for the review man. I would like to request you to take some pictures and post them in here. I want to see how much space you have left with 5/16 spacer, engine cover, and ARC strut bar on.

I just placed an order of Richie's (ARC replica one) front strut bar and I was planning to cut/trim my engine cover on its right and left edge so it's clear the strut bar.

Does your ARC bar touch the hood insulator when you close your hood?

Thanks,
T

 

Sounds good, i think im going to purchase the richie strut bar. Im not sure if it is an exact replica of the ARC or if its just a close replica...

-sean

 

Sounds goods...
I know when i installed mine the bar hit the hood insulator... I have mine off right now...

 

You have your ARC off or the hood insulator?

-sean

 

Hood insulator is off...

 

And you have spacer as well?

T

 

I will definately take some pics as soon as it warms up a bit and the car isn't filthy!

I can't say for certain that it is not hitting the insulation, but the insulation is very flimsy and is easily compressed, so, even if it was touching a tad, it wouldn't make much difference. There is no hood bulge or misalignment.

Honestly, though, if you don't have one of these, GET ONE! It makes that much of a difference--and I'm running on my snow tires right now! I can't wait to swap my Challenges back on.

 

I have the 5/16 spacer too... And there is more than enough room if u wanna get the bigger spacer... But i also recommend this mod!!!

To check to see if the bar is hitting the insulation i put tooth paste on my bar and closed the hood... It hit in 3 places... SO i took it off and was gonna cut out the places where it was hitting... But I'm to lazy... The bar and the insulation was flexing my hood though... That's another reason why i took it off...

 

https://g35driver.com/forums/brakes-suspension/118255-arc-strut-tower-installed.html
Here's a link of wat mine looked like... I don't wanna jack ur thread...