<CUSCO><Front & Rear>

Faq:

Personal Review of the CUSCO STB (front & Back)

Solution:

CUSCO is a Japanese company that produces various upgrade parts for the S13/S14 Silvia/180SX. I have a '97 S14, and thus have the strut tower brace for the S14 model. The front STB is a simple flat bar design. The Strut brace brackets are simply installed by un bolting the 3 nuts and placing the bracket over the tower and rebolting the nuts down. (The nuts are recommended to be  replaced with new ones). The handling difference is night and day in tight cornering condition. Car use to understeer, but now it is more neutral. It help the front end to get much more usable traction.

Feel of the rear STB:

The rear end of my car is definetly much stiffer than before. Now the tires are worked more than before. You wont belive how floppy the rear end feels until you get a rear STB. Now, with a much stiffer rear STB, the rear end feels much more solid than ever. Driving over various condition, you can actually tell by the seat of the pants on how the road feels.

The STB can only be seen from the trunk or by dropping the rear seat to expose the pass through.

Conclusion:

Worth the money!! Made the car feel much more complete. Not to mention the fact that I now have a place to strap down the Sony XS-TL1 that I've always wanted.

PS: My preference for my car is for road course racing. Everything I do to
my car is to enhance the performance for that purpose

'97 S14 240SX SE WK0, JWT POP-Charger, TRY Motorsport POP-Charger Heatshield, CUSCO front STB, CUSCO rear STB, TRW/SPARCO 3" 4point Cam lock safety harness.

T.Y. Yap
Email: [email protected]

Name: Chris Jefferson
Email: [email protected]

I cant afford a strut tower brace. Is there any way I can make one?

Solution:

Yes. All you need to do is go to home depot, or a good hardware store and get some galvanised or aluminium conduit. Theyre about 10ft long but it will fit in the 240(at least s14). Best of all they only cost like 2.00 bucks! Next, make your choice on diameter. 1/2 inch or 3/4. I did the front struts with 1/2 and the rear ones with 3/4. however, I think the 3/4 will clear in the front.

Next, measure the piece off for which ever strut(front or rear) youre doing so your piece wont be too long. next drill your holes. The fronts should be about 3/8 of an inch, or 14mm. It helps if you have access to a drill press, but you can do it with just a drill. Anyway, next you may have to slightly bend the bar in the middle to clear the engine, but it will work. I was only able to do the middle bolt, and the rear bolt in the engine, due to clearance problems. For the rear struts. Its really easy. Just cut away(s14 only) some of the metal(its okay its not structural) and measure. Keep in mind the bolts in the rear are smaller. I think 12mm. Anyway, if youve gotten this far, then youre done. Take it out for a spin and have fun! It works! My previous car was a sentra se-r and I had an OBX brace on it(very solid). Its feels the same. Best of all, its only like $2.00 for each 10ft piece!