Thread: Rear Strut Tower Brace from Octotat (edit: with pics)

6 modified B13's eh?? and how far of a drive is NYC?? and how often do they get together?? There is ONE modded B13 in Tulsa and he has no ikea brace, or no rear strut tower brace..... nothing. he just bought it from a guy in Tennesse 2 months ago..

anyway, enough already about the 3 point brace making a difference.. I DIDN'T KNOW IT WAS A 3 POINT BRACE EARLIER WHEN I SAID THAT I DIDN'T THINK IT WOULD OFFER A VAST IMPROVEMENT OVER THE ACTIVE TUNING BRACE!!!! did I make myself clear that time??

knowing that it's a 3 point brace makes it obvious to me that it's going to provide more stiffness... especially considering that it's about as beefy as the Active Tuning brace... it's not as though it's made of plastic or rubber.. what brace is?

ebay...

or it may as well be!!

Chill dude, I was only trying to be helpful. You should realize I didn't post for your sole benefit, and good thing, too! As you mentioned, sometimes the info is hard to find and hopefully putting more out there will make it easier for those who want it vs. those with stuck CAPS LOCK keys.

As for your question, no sadly I don't get to NYC or NJ as often as I'd like to hook up with other B13 and SR owners, I work pretty long hours and have a family to take care of, too. Hopefully as time goes on I will get together more with people more often

Sorry if Tulsa, or whatever isn't working out for you, but there's really no need to be such a total dick about things, is there?

Hey, btw did I tell you about the quadrangulated brace? It makes this stuff look so old school, you're going to have to get one!

LoL oh yeah.. forgot about those..

don't forget the size 4 font...

how far away is it?? i will probably see more cars in KC and Dallas than in Tulsa.. but I have family in KC and girl friend in Dallas so it's worth the drive on both fronts..

not really.. just got a little "OK OK already" with the 3 point FSTB talk.. but Tulsa sucks, the only thing here is warmer weather (than KC) and more importantly, a job.

I was seriously thinking of a 5 point brace. I'm not even kidding.. top of the strut towers, the base of the strut towers and then a little V off the bottom of the bottom brace that would bolt on just like the octotat... (like my son would say) "i'm not even kidding!!!"

When I put my Active Tuning Bar on my last SE-R, I put the Progress RSB on the same day and I already had Hypercoils and shortened koni's... so I didn't know if the difference was the progress bar, the AT RSTB or a combination of the two.. however on THIS car I put the Active Tuning bar on without ANY other suspension mods and noticed a big difference (dialed in some oversteer) and the car felt better, more composed at highway speeds too. So I could really imagine the 3 pointer being more than 50% better if I could ever get a chance to drive one I'm sure I'd notice.. but what are the chances that everything else would be equal?? ya know? (same mods as me other than the RSTB)...

so anyway.. glad I got you to be quiet about how great the 3 point RSTB is.. and I do have an oscar the grouch hanging from my rearview mirror for a reason... lol

Kudos for the size 4 font

Surprisingly for such a small state, it takes me a good 2-2.5 hrs to get to NYC, hard to believe. I have that "can't get here from there" syndrome, every trip starts with a 45 minute drive to get close to a highway. Unless you drive at 2AM to 4AM there's really no way to make better time. When I drove to GA for the convention I went through NYC Metro area at 2-3 AM, DC at about 6 AM or a little before.

One thing I have def found with the B13 is whatever you put on the corners for suspension, getting the chassis stiffer first counts more. If I was starting with a bone stock car I'd put as much as makes sense into chassis reinforcement first vs. an expensive set of CO's, etc. I used to get a good bit of creaking noises in the rear that I can only say sounded like sheet metal on sheet metal, that all stopped with the RSTB install.

As I've gotten some better stiffness front and rear, I've been able to ramp up the spring rates on my Progress CO's and dial back on the adjustable sways, I run the rear now typically med or even full soft if I'm at the track in the wet. Overall the handling on the street is better and more controlled with less harshness despite a +100 increase in the springs. Less reliance on the sways for roll control, better independent action, suspension works a lot better and more consistently. I drive on some pretty rough roads and lots of short steep hilly and twisty roads, it def puts the car through its paces.

Honestly, IDK if the rear needs more than what I have, diminishing returns I think after this point. Up front, I have some triangulated (sorry, that's what they are!) fender braces going in after I take care of some other things.

I really wish I could get the center of the car better beefed up w/o adding a massive amount of steel. Foam fill is one option that I'll try first, but what I really wish I had was something like the GTSpec chassis brace I picked up for my G Coupe, along with F/R lower tie bars. As stiff as the Nissan FM Z/G sled of the car may be, you still get flex through the center,which became more noticeable after I tightened up the front and rear with Stillen STB's. Something like this made maybe from tubular or box section cro-moly steel, might just do the trick. Whiteline used to make some braces for Nissan, they're hard to find now however. All I know is they work fantastically well on other cars I've driven. The Progess LCA brace falls into the same category, gives those front LCA mount points some beef.

I could do a lot of this with a full cage, too, but trying to keep the cars usable for the track and autocross, but not totally street unfriendly. Cages are tough to reconcile with those goals, and downright dangerous on the street even with padding when you're not suited up and wearing a helmet. I'd rather come up with something that has broader appeal for street use. GTSpec sells these like candy for the Z/G's at ~$250-300 a pop, even though the G comes with a factory steel brace, it's just not as effective. Given the limited market for our cars I'm going to have to ask someone to fab one up or a small volume shop to see what they can do, since my own welding skills are limited to spot welds on body panels

That's a great example of the lesson I've learned, the B13 chassis is enough of a noodle money is better spent there before dropping wads of cash on springs, struts, CO's. You've got to add chassis stiffness first w/o too much weight at a reasonable cost, not an easy challenge. I def see why people used B14's for starting point as a track car despite "the beam".

My second B13 is pretty heavily modified too, but when I started putting it through its paces I noticed the rear end flex right away. It has DA Konis (SHIGSpeed CO's, thank God I didn't pay for those new) and most of the same mods as my SCC car, Progess FSB/RSB, etc - BUT - it had nothing for a RSTB, no IKEA brace, and no reinforced upper mounts for the CO's, etc. With 350F/300R springs, that suspension just overwhelms the rear chassis with flex and you get hardly any of the real potential benefit of such a nice set of CO's. You're better off with the added chassis stiffness and some much less expensive upgraded struts and springs.

It's a good thing I really like these cars, I have a lot of friends off figuring out how to blow up their Evo or WRX/STi motors, and fun cars to drive I will admit, but they are just not as light or tossable at over 3100 lbs, and their engines while having "big power" are nothing like the smooth linear rev-happy power of the SR20.

yeah, i love the darn SR20 and the way it revs, sounds, etc... **sigh**

Does Octotat still offer these bars? I noticed he was not a vendor over in the old forums anymore. I tell you right now I bought/installed/ran the 1 piece Octotat rear B14 bar and nothing can compare to it. Including anything made using 3 different pieces.

I am not sure if he is still on the old forum however I know for a fact me and SuperblackZ got the last 2 bars he had in stock for the B13. I haven't heard anything from the other forum in a while. It runs to slow and that bothers me.

- I got me one as well. It's a nice piece.