Thank you for that quick response. I do not mind removing the strut bar to make the strut adjustments. I just did not want to get the Tokico set-up and then realize that they would not fit.

 

Received my order today. Wow, that's so fast with 2 days shipping!!!

Installed mine tonight and it took me less than 20 minutes cause I got the right tools

OK, here is the picture of installed Richie Strut Bar.



I haven't gotten time to test drive it. But so far feel solid. Thanks Ricthie.

 

did it fit the 07 sedan?

 

Nope.

 

with the extra welds and added structural integrity on the '07 I'm not sure that car will need it as much... couldn't hurt I suppose... I test drove one and it felt pretty solid.

 

Thanks for the review Trey. I am curious about this new mod and will jmost likely pick one up. I have a Stillen rear strut brace and Stillen sways set at soft/medium (when it finally warms up in Chicago, I'll be switching to med/hard) and I can't wait to see how this would add to those mods.

 

I really doubt:

1) If someone has one, I don't think they would have the other. I guess if two guys lived near each other.

2) Even if they did switch, it would be like comparing intakes. The benefits are subtle to begin with. Differences inbetween the two would be that much smaller.

I have the richie bar. And so far I think I can detect a firmer front end. Going over bumps results in a firmer "thunk" vs a creak like before. The steering is ever so slightly firmer also. I'm running stock 215-55-17s and Hotchkis bars. Install was easy and straight forward. Some of the ac/hydraulic lines get REAL close though.

 

Hey all, I just got the VRT bar on last week and recently posted a review. Trey's review actually confirmed for me that I wanted the VRT product because the changes described for that piece were NOT described as subtle.

This is the way I reasoned it out. If the chassis is reasonably firm, then the STB has to be *more* firm to have any positive impact. That component with the greatest stiffness is going to dictate the overall stiffness of the chassis at that point. If there is flex at the bolt down points or elsewhere, that introduces a weak link. With the VRT bar, not only is it made of steel but it is anchored in two different planes which should further prevent movement.

i haven't tried the richie bar and I doubt anyone other than perhaps a professional reviewer for a magazine would go to the trouble or expense.

here's a simple test though - when that richie bar is installed and tightened down, can you rock the car's front suspension up and down by leaning into it with all your body weight? Does it flex? If not, then maybe it's just as good and the VRT bar is overkill. If it does flex, all I can say is that I cannot get the VRT bar to perceptibly flex with 190 lbs of body weight thrown into it.

Hope that helps...

 

do u mean does the car bounce on the struts and go up and down on the springs and compress like if u were to push on the fender side or do u mean push and see if the richie strut bar actaully bends? and see if that gives while being locked in the struts?

 

The only reason I thought of it was because someone in an older thread asked Scott (of VRT) that if you push up and down on the VRT bar with all your weight, does the bar flex or does the bar remain rigid and the car move up and down on its springs. well, the answer is the bar remains rigid and the front of the car bounces up and down. so i was just wondering if someone with the richie bar has tried this simple but completely unscientific test?

not sure it really means anything anyway... the point of my note was to explain my reasoning that if the richie bar is not signficantly stiffer than the existing chassis then it wouldn't really help. if it is, then it should help - and maybe it helps enough??? who knows...

 

rcdash. Thanks for the input. Good stuff. I tried to dial in on the handling on the way back from work. I think I'm conservative in my reviews. So it's hard to compare people's "gains" from one to another. heh. The front of the car is more planted and it's definately more solid over speed bumps etc.. The handling is not "better" perse but the chassis seems to be firmer up front. If that makes any sense. I'm running my stock 215-55-17 tires so there's still a bit of noticable tire roll. But I wanted to put the bar on before I put my coupe 19s back on.

 

This is a mod whose value will be subjective at best. There have been countless posts regarding fitment; it appears that discrepancies exist amongst not only the coupes and sedans, but across the model years as well.

That tells me that each car will be different(duh). Specifically in this case, in regards to chassis flex and tower movement. I've always felt my car was a wet noodle. I added stillen sways, set to med/med, and I didn't feel a marked improvement.

This strut bar, however, is exactly what my car needs. There's still much too much longitudinal squirm for my tastes, but front-end squirm is all but gone. Turn in is incredible. Steering resistance is a bit greater, but once you get over that initial resistance, the car absolutely snaps into place. On some low-speed hard turns, the inside front wheel stays planted.

Let me give an example. The back-side entrance to my building's parking lot is a 90 degree left from a turn lane across a four-lane boulevard. The turn late is on a downward slope, with uneven pavement, and pavement transition from the boulevard to the parking lot. Before, stock and even with the sways, when I would pull a high speed hard left turn into the parking lot, there would be large amounts of body roll to the passenger side, and the driver's side front wheel hop along the pavement. Because of the pavement transitions, the rear end would skid a bit, but the outside rear wheel wouldn't have enough traction to kick out the rear. Now, it feels as if some imaginary pin had been placed vertically through the driver's side rear strut all the way through the ground. When I take the same turn, the car just whips into the exact line for entry, with no excitement from the rear end. Both front tires are working to steer, and putting more of my 245mm tires to the ground. I can do the turn at full throttle in 2nd gear at 3k rpms, and the car will just rocket out of the turn.

The only change has been the richie strut bar. Maybe it really hasn't been very effective, but it's almost eliminated front-end body roll. As such, it provides a much more direct feel for me, thus giving me more confidence. Maybe all of the extra perceived performance comes from that confidence, and not really from the bar itself. Either way, it worked better than I had hoped on my car.

 

And I'd like to address this flexing issue of the bar. Even if it does flex, I just don't see it as much of an issue.

I'm not an engineer, but it seems logical to me. The one condition where flex might be induced is when one strut tries to approach the other. The bar might not be stiff enough, or straight enough(which ever property is lacking) to prevent it from flexing, but it will provide more resistance to that strut movement than without the bar there at all. I assume that that resistance is enough to keep the flex of the bar to a minimum.