Chassis Brace is a Prius MUST HAVE!

I installed the Chassis Brace on the Prius yesterday and the results are incredible! The body definitely feels more solid but the curves is where the car shines! The car will understeer less, but overall feels more balanced.

Incredibly, while I was driving home last night I came up upon a Porsche and an Audi TT doing some spirited driving on this curvy section near my house. I said what the heck, I decided to do some spirited driving along with them and the Prius kept up, with good balance without any issues. I'm sure the other guys weren't on their cars hard, but the Prius held up very well going much faster than the speed limit through the curves without any issues. The car was very balanced and composed.

Incidentally, when I installed the bar and the "tunnel section" of the underbody, I found another 7" long brace that Toyota put on in the front of the tunnel. While looking around some more on the edge of the body, I found two 4" braces on both sides of the car near the rear wheel. I'm beginning to think that Toyota didn't invest heavily into making a rigid chassis when designing the Prius but rather something decent without too much weight. I'm hinting that's why they just went ahead and used the cheaper and simpler approach to tighten up the body with basic braces at certain key areas. Anywhoo, the lower chassis brace is definitely one area that Toyota put too small of a brace on.

Well, the best part? The brace for the Prius is only $50 shipped on E-Bay. Search "G7 prius brace" No need for the pricey $160+ brace from some of the other online retailers.

 

You're not understanding my post. I did not say I want to keep up with a Porsche.

The point of my post is that I feel that the brace greatly enhanced the balance and composure of the car. This is true regardless whether you are doing spirited driving or just under normal driving circumstances. Doing this mod is just like someone picking a Touring model over a Base. Are they going to race a Porsche with the Touring model? No, they choose it for the slightly enhanced performance.

The beautiful thing about the brace is that you really don't have to drive fast to enjoy it. That was the point of my post.

 

Short answer is YES. It will only make your Touring better.

The chassis reinforcement is just that, it'll reinforce the chassis so during loads your suspension will be in better alignment with the road. Theoratically, I think the reinforecement is probably more important on a Touring than the Base since the Touring suspension is more aggresively tuned.

I really love the chassis bar. I'm on day #4 and the car feels incredible!

 

Hi Artie,

Here is:

G7 Performance Stiffening Plate upgrade stability Prius: eBay Motors (item 120633072770 end time Oct-18-10 21:13:16 PDT)

It's only $36 now!!! Looks like you're going to get a better deal than everyone else!

Enjoy!

 

3-4 lbs is my guess....

 

It's probably the easiest mod next to increasing air pressure on the tires.

1) Set the parking brake.
2) Jack up the rear of the car (either side). Place safety jacks under.
3) Using a 14 mm bolt socket, remove the four bolts that hold the
factory brace in place.
4) Position the G7 brace in place using the "tapered side" forward.
5) Using a 6 mm hex ratchet, screw the G7 brace onto place using
the four supplied hex bolts.
6) Hand tighten the bolts to a firm stop. (17 lbs ft torque to be exact)
7) Lower the car and ENJOY!

Total time should be less than 15 minutes for a novice.

:rockon:

 

How does your car run at 160k? Any significant issues/repairs?