Hmmm now I kind of want to get it. If you could do it over again, would you?

 

Bang for the buck, i wouldnt recommend it. For overall driving feel and enjoyment, I recommend it. If I did it again, I would try my best to save up for the ASM parts since its lighter. (I bought the cusco chromoly cage new instead of a safety 21 etc) Ideally, it would be light and stiff...

To me, driving feel outweighs pure speed. I want a good, fun car to drive around town and tear up the track. I dont want a pure track monster, I want to improve my driving and get the most out of track sessions (enjoyment and learning).

It's along the lines of a stripped out civic on stiff suspension and semi race tires vs a fairly stock bmw on summer tires. To me, the bimmer would feel better though it is slower and more expensive.

if you have more questions/that are more specfic pm me, I dont want to clutter up the OP's thread

 

Very helpful info and feed back, thanks for sharing !

 

i had the following:

rick's lower x-brace (probably beefiest there is)
cusco "ladder" bar
cusco rear lower bar
carbing rear tower bar
comptech front tower bar
hard dog roll bar

i since removed the following because track folks insist they don't make a difference and add weight:

cusco ladder bar
rick's brace

i kept the rear cusco brace since it's pretty much doing the same thing as the oem one--same with the carbing rear tower bar. i'll probably remove the front tower bar in the future, but for now keeping it cause it will be a pain to remove and it doesn't weigh much anyway.

so......... finally............ to answer your question:

after i removed the 2 pieces, when my car goes sideways up and down driveways, i can feel the car flexing a bit more, and making more squeaking/flexing noises. so, i do think the pieces did stiffen the chassis. however, it's questionable whether one could feel the difference. i didn't--and thus for me i didn't think the weight penalty was worth it.

(btw, anyone who wants the rick's brace and/or the cusco ladder brace, let me know)

 

^curious, by removing those braces, did you empirically improve your times any?

 

nope--no objective data. i'm still a learning driver... everytime i get on the track i improve by a few seconds here and there, and haven't really hit a wall yet. so i can't really say this and that shaved xxx seconds. but i can tell you the last time i went out was my fastest yet, and i did not wish to have the braces back on.

but again, i do think they do add stiffness as noted above. it's more of a question of whether it really matters. maybe it's only my lack of skill that is keeping me from appreciating the effects.

 

With the ASM front strut bar, I noticed a difference on kwv3s with steering response (i'm assuming because it ties to the rear of the steering rack).

I installed the rear beatrush underbrace, asm rear gt strut bar, and asm floor bars at the same time so it's a little hard to distinguish the difference, but on constant, rocky surfaces, i can immediately tell the difference from the fore and aft ridgitiy. I would say it's most likely from the floor bars. This is on tein src's so it may be more pronounced with stiffer spring rates.

As far as something tangible on the track, it's very hard because my variables were always dramatic (new tires, new alignment, different brakes, more experience, etc), but it definitely does reduce creaks and squeeks from the chassis.

 

that said............... a proper roll bar or roll cage would probably increase stiffness FAR more than any of these devices. so, the way I see it is that even if they make a difference, the weight penalty and $$$ you spend is not justified. the effect these devices have compared to proper roll protection is probably minimal.

if i were you, i'd spend money on a hard dog roll bar, or a custom cage. don't get the cusco / safety 21 crap. look at their bolt areas and search for the mustang crash here and you will see why you don't want that stuff.

that's just my opinion.

 

Yeah, if i was going for all out stiffness, I would get an aftermarket roll bar, but don't really want to do this to my daily driver and don't want to do too many mods that are hard to reverse (been there done that with my subarus).

One mod that I was looking to do that helped the subaru chassis greatly (macpherson strut design) were the fender braces. The early imrezas did not come with them and later wrx's and sti's came stock with them, albeit stamped steel. The aftermarket offerings were a night and day difference, especially on upgraded coilover systems, and definitely connected the car more. I don't expect similar feel with the s2000 due to the differences in suspension types, but think it should still improve rigidity some.

 

one more consideration though is that i find the s2k has a pretty rigid chassis stock from the factory.

i had a corvette z06 before, and a standard c4 vette before that, and i'll tell you, the chassis flex is MUCH greater. just going sideways up any driveway you can feel the car bending around your seats. it's that bad. even the evo i just bought... when i lower it on jack stands, you can see how much the chassis is flexing. it's amazing how much these things bend.

the s2k is so rigid that i have trouble getting up driveways since sometimes a rear wheel does not touch the ground and just spins. so, chassis stiffening probably does not help the s2k as much as other cars.