Merry Christmas, everyone! Being an early riser in a family of night owls, I have some time this morning, so I thought I’d write up a Yule Tide Review!

Went for a road trip a couple weeks back to work with TB Performance on their X-Brace. It was a bit of a drive, but a good portion of it was on some great twisties, so I’m certainly not complaining! Unfortunately, I came down with the flu while I was there, so I didn’t get to really test out the braces on the way back, which is why I’ve taken so long to review them. Anyway, here we go!

Pros: A “race car” look that would make Donner and Blitzen proud. Easy installation. Tightens up the rear end. Inexpensive mod to get that extra handling. Doesn’t kill your trunk space.

Cons: I’m really stretching for cons on this one… Bars will clink occasionally over hard bumps. Not the night/day performance change of some mods.

Bottom Line: For most of you, this will be primarily a visual upgrade. (Don’t balk. This is still going improve your performance more than the strut tower bar you’ve been considering!) Thankfully, it looks spectacular without losing usable trunk space or your back seats. For those of you who actually drive your car to the limit, this is definitely worth the investment on a performance level. There is a lot of time to be made in the chicanes and this makes a difference.

Review: First off, I’m reviewing 2 separate products in one here; the TB Performance Rear Strut Bar and the TB Performance X-Brace. I’m reviewing both as one mod because they complement each other beautifully, but more because I simply don’t know why you would ever buy one without the other! So if I seem to refer to the 2 things as one, that’s why.

I had a tough time deciding where to start with this review. The X-brace and rear strut bar have one of my favorite combinations, show and go benefits! Since I bought my car, I’ve worked to make appearance upgrades to my car either look stock or compliment the stock pieces. That’s translated into a car that gets a lot of compliments about the general appearance but no one thing really jumps out at people. Park my car next to a stock tC with 12” subs in the back and my car gets a smile and head nod, while people drool all over the subs in the other tC. Annoying, but true… With this mod, I have an upgrade that catches people’s eye. Now, when people see in my trunk, they stop and take note. “Wow, do you race your car?” or even a simple “Damn.” Yes, it’s shallow of me to be jealous of the attention the guy gets with the 12’s. Yes, anyone with any mechanical knowledge of cars would know I could waste the other guy in the twisites. But I still like to get some recognition and if absolutely nothing else, this mod definitely says “I race and not just between stop lights!” But I digress…

So now that we know this makes my car look like it races, does it actually make my car any faster? Yes and no. As with any suspension mod, you have to know what to really expect. The braces do exactly what TB Performance says and I would expect; stiffen up the body of the car and for a very reasonable price. They are designed and work best in conjunction with other suspension mods but aren’t, by themselves, going to make your car feel like it’s on rails. If this is the only suspension upgrade you have, you will probably be disappointed. (NOTE: This is true of the Strut Tower Bar from TRD & CUSCO as well) However, as long as you know where bracing the car body really benefits you, you’ll be thrilled with the investment. Body roll is always problematic to handling, but in a FWD car, most people will overload their front tires before their rear, thus having under steer issues. But any of you who’ve gone through tight s-curves (aka a chicane) know, the back end does get a little squirrely. And to put it simply, the braces clean that up very nicely. The front wheels transfer load more evenly and float on the back wheels is significantly reduced.

 

Awesome review! I might look into getting these for mine. Great price.

 

What tool did u use to screw in the factory screws or the top of the brace? I don't have a socket to match my stock acres that fits in the hole. :/ lol

 

Hey Paul, I finally got my redline goods door inserts. Can you tell me anything about the install on these bad boys?

 

Voltagedriver: 10mm socket on a 1/4" ratchet fits.

Druidiron: Cool man! My only suggestion is to take off the original cover before putting the redlinegoods one on. The leather doesn't sit right just putting it on top of the original cover. You also may have to cut some of the edges to get it to wrap around the corners. Other than those 2 things, just take your time.

 

Should I take the whole door panel off to make it easier on myself? I cant figure our how to get the cloth material out with the door panel on.

 

Ah Ha! I was asking you a seemingly dumb question because I could not find the redlinegoods install guide on their website. I googled it and it came right up. Should be good now.

 

Sorry... Didn't realize you couldn't find the install guide. Let me know if anything isn't clear. I wrote it after all.

 

Yeah its wierd. From their page when you click install guides, it only brings up the boots, which I already know how to do. I guess you just have to use google to find the door inserts.

 

So I'm finding new benefits of living in a bigger metro area... Today I went to the Arizona Motorsports Park to get a sound certification (can't be louder than 94 dbs) which is only about 5 min from my house. Not only is it super close, it's a REAL track! Only got to use 1/2 of it for the sound test, but it was still over a mile long and taking my time, I got up to almost 100 mph. Didn't get any pictures of me going around the track, but here's an image of the track.

Also got to finally meet Chris and Aaron. With the 3 tC2s rolling in, we kinda had our own little club.

 

Awesome to finally meet you guys. Had a great time at the track even though we only got a few laps

 

Haha. Come out next week and get more laps in a much more race-type environment. I think Scott is gonna be there too. We can have our own tC2 competition since on all-season tires, we aren't gonna win anything against anyone else!

 

OMG! So jealous!

So, you know what this means now right....you need these:

http://phoenix.craigslist.org/evl/pts/2760462338.html

(FYI, if those were in Canada and priced for that I'd have them now...they NEVER sell that cheap). Note, they are "R6" for road racing. They wont heat up fast like the A6 would.

Call up tire rack and I bet you get some 18x9's that are light for track use. With that combo you'd have a hell of a lot of fun out there!

 

Had a ton of fun! Keep me posted on the upcoming events im def down to go and we can rep our tc2s

 

@1stOne: Thanks for the heads up, but it's only a set of 2. If it was a set of 4 for $600, I'd do it but not worth it to me for only 2 tires.

@Aztcrs801: yeah, it was fun. Definitely should come next Sun. Totally worth the money to race.

 

Darn. See this is why I don't read things early in the morning when my brain is clearly off...and yes I know it was 10am...I just woke up lol.

Now I demand videos from the track! Go shoot some! Haha

 

Next race is next Sunday. Should have a few racers from SL on the track. Pictures and videos should be good!

 

Damn dude, your ride is still looking sharp. How much longer are those FL plates going to stay on there??

Keep us up to date on the AX, you and 1stOne are my outlet for any AX fun, I learned a month or two back that my B6 won't be competing since it is in the same class as Audi Quattro's and WRX's... sooo that's a big no-no.

 

Sup, man? Long time no see. Florida plates went away the last week of December. Had to. They expired.

And my next AutoX event is Sun. Hopefully this time there will be 3 or 4 tC2s racing.

 

So I have a question for you SL tC2 peeps out there. What CF pieces would go well with our car that aren't currently in production?

Back story. I found a local guy who does custom CF work. He's primarily a Mini Cooper guy, but has done others, including at least 1 Scion, and from what I can tell, does really nice work. I'm meeting up with him Saturday to have him look at my car and I want some ideas. I'm really hoping to get a trunk and roof for less than Seibon sells them and a one-off/custom hood for the same or less than the Seibon hoods. But before I throw down mega bucks for major body parts, I'm going to get some smaller, cosmetic stuff done (assuming the price is right). Here's what I'm thinking, but I'd like your opinions too. Maybe if there's enough interest, he'll produce more pieces.

My First Choice is a 10-Piece Dash Trim Set
- On the doors: Long silver pieces and little piece behind the handle
- Dash: Pieces around the mirror control, cluster gauge, radio/enviro, and piece above the glove box
- Silver ring around the shifter
- Plastic piece around the dome light

Other pieces I think would be cool:
- Cooling plate (yes, it's already been done, but why not competition?)
- Fuse box cover
- Oil cap, radiator fluid reservoir cap (if it's possible)
- Engine cover
- A-pillars (not sure if this will work with the airbags)
- B-pillars
- Whole center console
- Silver pieces on the steering wheel