I'm not an engineer, even though I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night (literally) :biggrin:.
Here is my story. I had the Type R bars (top & bottom) and I noticed almost no difference, which really pissed me off because of all the reviews on Prime about people saying it made a DRAMATIC difference. Did it make a "slight" improvement? Maybe. But not enough to say "wow, it's much stiffer."
So.... Ross tells me, install the STMPO front bar and if you don't like it, send it back no questions asked. Kind of hard to turn down that offer. So with the STMPO bar was it DRAMATICALLY different?
Well, with the STMPO bar in front installed I go for a quick test drive. My neighborhood has really bad streets and I noticed a slight improvement as the car rocked back and forth while going over the seams in the street. I also noticed the targa wasn't creaking. OK, so there was a small noticeable improvement. But still not a "WOW moment".
Driving around town I didn't really notice it all.
So I pull in to my driveway, and here I noticed a DRAMATIC change.... normally the car flexes as I have to pull in over a curb at a 45 angle as one wheel goes up and then the other. Even with the Type R bars the flex was very noticeable. With the STMPO front bar, the flex was almost non-existent. I can say without a doubt this was a DRAMATIC improvement over the Type R bars.
So Ross is telling me about his new rear strut bar and makes the same offer.... if you don't like it send it back. So I installed it. Off came the OEM Targa triangle brace and on went the STMPO rear bar.
First real test drive was at the track - Putnam Park. Ross knew I was heading out to the track, so his first question was "did you notice a difference at the track?" My response was "I was a little busy braking for Turn 1 from 130 down to 80 to even think about it." :wink: So I went out the next day and ran a couple of laps paying attention to the way the car felt. What I did notice was on Turn 4 at Putnam where you switch from a right hand turn to a left turn while the track goes off camber the car WAS stiffer and I could now throw the car into the left hand turn with out feeling like the car was shifting the weight from the left side to the right. Well obviously the car was shifting weight, but it felt much more precise as I could now throw it to the left. A year later, I am SMOKING through this turn and no longer braking before and can catch ANYONE here as they are tapping the brakes before turn in and I am much more aggressive now.
So.... would I recommend the STMPO bars? Yes. Is it going to knock 5 seconds off lap times, no. But there is a REAL improvement with the bars (and this isn't one of those psychosomatic PRIME butt dyno reviews that will piss you off when you chunk down the $$$ and think "what's the big deal?")
PS: Ross - make them the same "if you don't like it, send it back offer" and then people really have nothing to loose (except shipping - which is fair).
