was interested in picking up the above in the near future.. wondering if there's any one strut bar that's particularly better than the others? only one i noticed more than once in searches has been the one from spoon.. also, would it even be worthwhile to buy it since i'm getting the x-brace anyways? as for sway bars, looks like mugen's the only choice even though a few people got their's custom-made.

since i'm probably going to get these parts in stages because of the price, does anybody have suggestions as to which way i should do it?

x-brace (and possibly strut bar with it) or sway bars first?

 

probably the one mod that will make the most difference is the x-brace. i got the one from mingster and i haven't regretted it. i don't have the strut tower bar and with the brace, i don't think i need it. i think he still has some left at a discount.

 

I have the RM Racing strut tower brace. It's benefits are extremely subtle. Then I got the Spoon lower x brace. Now that made a big difference. The car's front is much more rigid with the brace. When rolling over the cobble stones in front of my home I don't get the low frequency resonance through the base of the windshield any more. Just feels much tighter.

I also got the Spoon rear cross brace. No effect that I can notice. It is not an x brace, just a cross brace slightly bigger than the one that comes with the car.

 

Take a look at the X-brace from Ricks. http://www.ricks2k.com/products/brace.html It is a solid billet brace so no welds to flex or dented tubing to flex. It's not cheap but it is one awesome piece of machining. It was designed so that you don't have to remove it to do an oil change.

Nuespeed makes a nice strut tower brace at a good price.
http://www.neuspeed.com/order/index.php?action=1
It is tubular, but you have much less stress on the tower brace if you have an X-brace installed also.

You will notice the X-brace much more than the tower brace but if you plan to hit the twisties hard, then both will give you just a little less body roll. If you choose only one, then go for the x-brace. It will give you the most bang for the buck

 

does anybody have any input _if_ the spoon x-brace is better than mingster's? since they're almost the same price (with shipping and duty for mingsters) i'm leaning towards spoon's

apparently mingster's is heavier/stronger?

rick's looks awesome and i don't doubt that it is the best on the market, but i don't think i'm in the market he's geared towards

btw tpn, thanks for that link, i think i'll be getting the neuspeed strut tower along with the x-brace since it's not much more

also looked into the mugen sway bars and was told that the front ones alone would run me 370 usd. yikes