So even before I took delivery of the Elgrand, one of the must have mods I knew I would be doing based on my experience with both my R33 GT-R and Lexus IS-F, was to make improvements to the body rigidity.
Given how big this car is, and how any efforts in improving the driveability (whether power, handling or braking) would first require reinforcements to the chassis, I searched on the Japanese Minkara car-centric web/owners blog sites to see what was popular for the Elgrand. Turns out that in the area of body rigidity, CUSCO and Okuyama are the two tuners with the biggest fans. Midorikawa-san at Nissan Prince Fukushima also mentioned that he had seen the Malaysian UltraRacing bracing as well.
Unfortunately, at this time it looks like both Okuyama and UltraRacing have stopped making most of their parts for the E52 Elgrand, so instead of playing hit-and-miss trying to find who had stock, I decided to just go ahead and order the front and rear Power Braces from CUSCO. Yeah, I see they offer a front strut tower bar but it got mixed reviews on Minkara, so I didn't order it. And as for the rear stabilizer bar, I want to see how the Power Braces improve the ride before experimenting with body roll.
On my way down from the used car dealer in Saitama to Omori Factory in Yokohama, the Elgrand was fast with plenty of good power, but smooth only on city streets - I noticed lots of understeer when entering a curve to get onto the expressway. Once on the expressway, it wallowed a bit on the curves and I had to pray that the tires were able to keep their grip on the tarmac. I found myself trying to use the weight of the car to load the front outside suspension on the curves, but it felt inconsistent. I wasn't sure if this was the body flexing or the OEM shock absorbers on their way out, or both?
So, before worrying about the shock absorbers I figured I would make sure the chassis was as rigid as reasonably possible.
And the result? Well on the drive home I could immediately tell a difference. The Elgrand handled much better, I was going into sweeping curves on the expressway and even though the suspension is still softer than I like, I am able to accurately point the nose in and transfer weight to the outside front tire. The car also seems more solid feeling, so definitely the body rigidity has improved. My question now is whether I try to find other braces to continue stiffening the chassis, and if so is it an exercise in diminishing returns?
In any case, I am a big believer in proper body rigidity, and I note that Nissan, via its Autech subsidiary had released an Elgrand Rider "High Performance Spec" version 10 years ago. This car had a retuned ECU giving 20ps more, but also body rigidity improvements, including a Yamaha-sourced Performance Damper on the rear of the car, in addition to front, center and rear cross bracing (good hints on what needs to be done, I think!).
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| From - https://www.craft-web.co.jp/blogs/atsugi/1511_1/ |
So eventually, I hope to improve my car's performance in the same way... but these Performance Dampers are nowhere to be found! Anyone??
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