Tanabe R&D for the 2010 Prius ROUND 2

Tanabe USA is having another R&D Session for the 2010 Prius, and they've asked me to come back for this round of fitment tests. I'm very excited about tomorrow's session, and I'll document it as best I can. Thanks again Mike@Tanabe! As some of you may remember, Tanabe used my car for fitment testing late last year for the NF210 Springs, a 2-point Under-body Brace, and a Concept G Exhaust. I've been extremely satisfied with the parts so far, so its no surprise that I didn't hesitate to say yes to more fitment testing.

I've been informed that they're doing fitment tests for the 2010 Prius Strut Tower Bar, and for a Coilover kit (which means I'll very likely be selling my Tanabe NF210 Springs, if anyone's intersted).

The Strut Tower Bar/Brace is the one upgraded suspension piece that I've eye-drooled over most. After reviewing the options, it seems like the most cost-effective way to improve suspension, decrease understeer, improve turning response etc.

The Coilover kit is going to be very interesting. For anyone who's unclear what the difference between lowering your car with springs, and lowering your car with Coilovers, here's my best explanation (anyone please jump in if you have a better explanation):

Springs = Lowering the car to a set height, non-adjustable. If you keep the stock struts/shocks with your new shorter springs, the shocks/struts will wear quicker, because the compression range of the stock shocks/struts were not designed to work with shorter springs.

Coilovers = Coilovers are a whole assembly, where the springs are on the strut, with adjustable spring seats so that you can raise and lower ride height within a predetermined range . The suspension is designed to handle the lowered car height, so premature strut/shock wear isnt a concern. Currently, I have the NF210 Springs and stock shocks/struts. They ride great...but if what they say is true, I suspect its only a matter of time before things get wonky with the struts.

a side note: I also submitted my car for the SSR Wheels Sponsorship (SSR is connected to Tanabe). I really dig their Hybrid wheels (the Type-C and Type-F, i believe), and I'd love to run some lighter-weight 18's. We'll see what they have to say about my car...fingers crossed.

I had a set of 18" TRD 5 star wheels on my car for a while. They weighed nearly 50 lbs per wheel, mounted, and man I could feel it. The car was very very sluggish to accelerate. It also added about 10 feet of stopping distance. I will say that once I was rolling, the 18"s really hugged the road. all this plus a 7mpg average drop and I went back to the stock wheels. Prius' don't have a ton of power to spare, so I really hope they can help me find a better solution than the heavy TRDs.

I'll post more as soon as the updates come along.
Best,
David

 

It's my understanding that the gen 3 STB (japan) doesn't properly fit the US gen 3 prius, this fitment test (I'm assuming) is for a redesigned stb for the US market. Not quite sure about the coilovers, but it's on my list of questions for tomorrow

 

@priushappy, youre absolutely right. The coilover system is adjustable, but its no easy feat. You've gotta remove the wheels to do so, and you've got a limited height range to work with. also, Prius Happy's link will take you to the Tanabe R&D page, so please forgive me reposting some of their photos here.

I'll break up my posts on this into part-by-part so it doesn't get too congested

If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask and I'll do my best to figure it out.
Just got the car back, and my inital reaction is as follows: "Whoa."

Strut Tower Brace:
The strut tower bar DOES help, and noticeably so. Much more evident than the under-brace alone when it comes to under-steer, and although I have not compared what handling is like with the strut tower bar sans the under-brace, Im gonna go out on a limb and say that if you HAD to pick one item to improve chassis rigidity, get the strut tower bar. Notice the redesigned mounting plates for this 2010 US Prius Tower Bar compared to Gen II bars, which allow the bar to sit farther forward than the previous design. also, This bar mounts "vertically" (you can see what i mean in the photo) as opposed to a horizontal bridge like other strut tower bars. The tanabe logo faces forward, (as in parallel to license plate). Mounting still looks pretty tight, but I suppose that's a very good thing considering the tight clearances for everything else under the hood.

The handling aspect of this is obviously clouded by the new coilover suspension, and the pre-existing under brace, but, doing my layman's best to assess the difference I'd say that the Strut Tower Bar majorly cuts chassis flex when cornering hard (or switching lanes quickly). The car responds quicker than it had, and almost feels like being in a sports car with racing seats. The car moves all together, and theres very little, if any, "float" between driver input and car reaction. Also, while taking a familiar S curving onramp at about 60 mph, the car felt very solid, completely in control, very similar to what the car felt like when i had my TRD 18" wheels on, but with much less body roll. I irresponsibly sped on the 405 and tried changing lanes quickly, and I must say, it felt really good to zip in and out of traffic with such a tight feeling suspension/chassis.

 

Coilovers.

Tanabe installed the Pro-S0c coilover kit. This differs from traditional spring-only kits in that it A. is ride height adjustable and B. includes suspension pieces designed to work well with the adjustable ride height that a coilover system offers.

This particular coilover system was designed for primarily street use (meaning they've created coilovers which maintain a comfortable ride, and are still....well, coilovers). And this particular coilover has some interesting tech going on. Coilovers are notoriously rough rides, but Tanabe addressed this by adding low pressure gasses to the shock chamber to handle the daily bumps, while the shock responds normally when pushed harder. pretty cool sounding stuff, for sure.

While I loved my NF210 springs, I am much happier to have a complete suspension system designed to work together. Driving with these coilovers vs. the NF210 & stock shocks is noticeable, and positively so. small bumps and dips taken at slow speeds feels fine in both set ups, but on the occasions where I hit a speed bump going too fast with the NF210, I could feel that the stock shocks couldn't properly handle it and the car bucked roughly. I intentionally hit a speed bump going too fast with the coilovers, and while still a very rough experience, i could sense the new suspension parts reacting and recovering in a way that seemed to simply lessen how harsh the hit was. The ride isn't harsh at all (so design-wise, these S-0C's are delivering as advertised: comfortable for street use), and my coilovers are set currently to somewhere in the middle of the lowest drop and highest settings. I'll report back with more once I lower the car a little more.

As an average joe car enthusiast, I gotta say that coilovers, while very very very cool, have their place with people who need the versatility handle different scenarios in terms of fine tuning, ride height, and suspension/handling. For me, I love it all, but being part of the R&D session accounts for much of that. Im not a racer, and my prius is a daily driver. In regards to lowering the car, if you're looking for a solid all in one solution for lowering your car with the appropriate suspension and the ability to fine tune, the coilover kit is definitely the way to go. If youre looking just to lower the car to a specific and permanent height, your motive is more for appearance than performance, and you're ok with eventually replacing the faster wearing stock shocks/struts, the springs alone are a much more affordable solution....though maybe not as elegant (but hey, its under the car).


Thanks again to Mike and Tanabe for being such cool guys. Hopefully these posts help out a few of you who were/are curious about Tanabe's performance upgrades.

Next up: new SSR wheels? I'm thinking some lightweight Type-F's.

 

No word on when it'll be available, only that it passed fitment tests. However, I do know that although the strut tower brace was a redesign, I was told that the coil over kit was a production kit that they assessed would fit a 2010 prius ( I'll ask mike what make/model it was intended for).

Also my NF210's are for sale. Check the sale section if you're interested

 

I think I read somewhere that the upgraded rear swaybar from a Pontiac sunfire would fit a prius?