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Category: Steering & Suspension Price: $11111 Private or Vendor Listing: Private Listing Part Fits (you may select multiples): Series II Location (US State/Canada/Int): CA Item Condition: New
Hey 8Club!
Looking for Japanese aftermarket front strut bars for s2. I am not interested in the usdm mazdaspeed bar.
Just wanted to see if anyone had a new or used bar they're willing to part with before I placed an order. Primarily interested in Autoexe (msy400).
If you don't need full J D M, there's a guy on here who has a corksport 4 point strut bar which I'm sure functions just as well as the autoexe...just sayin :P
Not to hijack the thread, but I figure folks following might know: does the Mazdaspeed strut bar fit on an S2? Everywhere I see it listed, it says 2004-08 only, but I feel like I’ve seen pics of S2s that have it.
you gain the brake cylinder brace, but lose the triangulation to the firewall area, but it fits exactly the same as the S1. This is a 2010 (with other mods):
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vs. the factory triangulated brace on the S2:
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Which is why this WTB ad exists.
Structurally you’d be better off getting a fab shop to add a brake cylinder brace to the factory strut bar, but if you want the looks of the other more then you can do that.
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To add to this.. when you take off the S2 strut brace you question if it's actually doing anything. Lots of the parts are slotted and the torque specs on the nuts is fairly low. I think if anything this bar is mostly to support the S2 engine cover. I've moved all of my cars to the mazdaspeed strut brace. AND you can still buy them new.
I thought I found a LHD MS 4pt but turned out to be a wild goose chase. Site advertises being in stock but I was unable to receive confirmation of driver orientation even after many email requests.
To add to this.. when you take off the S2 strut brace you question if it's actually doing anything.
I tend to wonder how much any strut brace is really doing on a car with double wishbone suspension. I'd love to see measurements of actual deflection under torsional load with various 1st and 3rd party chassis stiffeners. My hunch is there's a lot of snake oil. Chassis stiffness was a major selling point for the RX8, so at some point you're just spending money and adding weight to chase vanishingly small improvements in stiffness.
The MazdaSpeed bar has some appeal for including the brake cylinder brace. I've already gone to stainless steel brake lines, but still would like a stiffer brake pedal. AutoExe makes a kit, but I've only seen it for RHD models. I've toyed with buying one just to have a fabricator make a mirror image of it for me.
not obvious and for min weight on street tires; ~2700 lbs. You can argue that Mazda had it on there for a reason, but that reason can be vibration and noise purposes more than stiffness. I’m sure it must contribute to some stiffness though, but the true magnitude is not so easy to define.
but for much stiffer springs and higher grip tires in DSP I have the MS one, but also have brake system mods nobody else is doing, or even thinking of. Otherwise the brake master cyl brace is a bit overrated on the typical RX8 imo.
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FYI. The MS 4 pt has the master cylinder brace as well. This one in the pic has been painted but still serves as an example.
I've been driving HPDE without a front strut bar for around a year now with no discernible difference imo (formerly used the AutoExe 6pt MSY480); other than a 10 lb weight reduction over the front end of the vehicle. I personally don't expect much of a 'performance increase' (if any) from a strut bar; especially on rx8.
JDM Aftermarket Front Strut bar(s)
