New Suspension Part for the S13

General discussion forum about the 240sx, and a great place to introduce yourself to the board!
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-RJ-
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argh the sites down D:


carps13guy
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-RJ- wrote:argh the sites down D:
i dunno, that seems pretty fishy to me. they better not take mine & everyone elses money and run.

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johngriff
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Whoa.

I just logged on tonight after a long weekend.

Sites down.. Don't know why, logs show a DDOS, and godaddy has the server locked down right now, until they resolve it.

I can send out bound email, can't receive any.

Use my backup email address if you need to contact me:[email protected]

Our phone is 949.891.1710

Braces should be back from the local cutter this week. If you are on the back order list you should have been kept up to date through some group emails I sent out on the issues with the last production run. If anyone has questions on specifics, just email me.

As far as "infiniti_lineup" is concerned.. Who are you? I have no idea who you are, and it looks like you are spamming a thread you are not involved in.

To date we have delivered about 2000 sets of braces, and about 100 VSHT's. We also sell a few hundread haltech systems a year. I wouldn't operate a business just to rip people off, that all seems pretty silly.

Thanks for all the support,

John

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johngriff
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Scratch that,

Web site is fixed!

mikebluesrt
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I haven't received any group emails on the progress of the back order.

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breadbox
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When I emailed him he told me, "We are still waiting for the run to be finished. I will update you as soon as they are shipping."

Also, I just received a group email.

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AZhitman
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For what it's worth, I first dealt with John when I bought a set of wheels online... The order got messed up, but John was real professional and MORE than compensated me for the hassle.

I'm not prepared to condemn based on one or two posts, so my advice to everyone involved is to touch base with John and get an update, and keep us posted on how it pans out.

On a side note, I installed a set of the braces on NICO's Project Vert. She's been out of commission for a while now, but everyone who's seen the parts has said they're top-notch, and a simple solution for the S13's weak rear suspension.

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OutToWinPAHC
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Agreed, but I do think the holes are a little big for the hex head, other then that these bars are nice.

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breadbox
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I thought they fit fine with the lock washers.

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bersh240
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ok. now im confused. dad asked what i wanted for xmas. i said those braces. came here to read more. is this a scam or not? lots of people say they recived them. alot said they didnt.

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OutToWinPAHC
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I got mine within 3 days when ordered.

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Space Monkey
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bersh240 wrote:ok. now im confused. dad asked what i wanted for xmas. i said those braces. came here to read more. is this a scam or not? lots of people say they recived them. alot said they didnt.
Hey man,

Looks like i jumped the gun with the admins and i have apologized to John regarding this already. John was on Vacation and his website crashed for reasons posted above. He is back and the website is up and running again as well. I know several people that have received these braces, including AZhitman and TeddyS13. John will keep us updated going forward as much as he can. I am putting my order in for the new sets of braces when he shows them done.

Krew126
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I would also like to know if I should order these now. I've seen this thread when it first came out and wanted to get them but always had other things to spend the money on. I really would like to order these, but I just want to make sure that I should.

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Sushibandito
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Website doesn't seem to list any ordering information, can you send me a quote to Zip Code 98109?

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johngriff
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Yeah sure,

Back order list is not that long since I have not really been actively marketing the braces while I was put through so much headache with the last vendor. I figure once I have them ready to ship, I will start yelling about them again. If you order now, I can 100% tell you that yours will ship with the next batch.

Right before I left for the weekend, I actually buried the SSB page b/c it gets allot of inbound traffic from all sorts of different forums all over the web, so I wanted people to "land" on a page where they saw the other products, instead of just skipping over the SSB page, then going back to their home forum and talking about them.

So, pictures, description ad copy, and purchase buttons are all under this link:http://www.RPSport.net/product/

Shipping is flat rate in the US, site accepts all major CC through Paypal or Direct Paypal.

If you are International, click the International link to buy at a slightly increased price because of international flat rate shipping.

If you feel like I am not getting you in any of these "mass emails", email me [email protected] and tell me, and I will add you to the list.

Anything Else... just let me know.

More over, Today I was jotting down some ideas and I think that 2010 is really going to be a good year for our company and the new products I am ramping up for.

Krew126
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I appreciate the update and will be placing an order when I get a chance, thanks.

carps13guy
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cool john. so what color did you guys decide on, and when can i expect the backorder shipment to be made? i might have an autox event the beginning of jan, so it would b nice to have these installed by then. thanks

Darkness and Light
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I'm a little skeptical about any performance benefit from these braces.

The stock braces are mounted parallel on the car. Looking closely at the area around the brace I don't see any wear or marks showing the brace is pivoting. The buildup on the brace looks fairly uniform and I don't see any cracking so it seems unlikely the brace is twisting or bending an appreciable amount. The design of the brace also makes it unlikely it was meant to provide support in those vectors so my conclusion is that it is meant to provide compressive and tensional support, either from acceleration or braking.

The distance between the centerline on both mounting points is about 2.5" It seems to me that if there were enough motion in the subframe for your product to provide a measurable improvement, then the distortion would be enough to fatigue and break a stock brace in a matter of months or even less.

Your product on your page has a listed price of $49.98 and $5.15 shipping in the United States. By contrast, a pair of stock braces from Courtesy parts is $7.20 and $8.95 to California.

I simply can't see how this part could make a noticeable performance difference, if you have any data from your testing showing something I missed I would love to see it.

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StricNyne
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say what!! data is for nerds! nah seriously JG i am looking foward to s14 version. I Would say the proof is in the fact on how the oem are bent. idk if this is cause of flexing or rocks hitting them, but to me customer testimonials mean a lot to me and i havent heard a person say they noticed nothing and wanted money back

Darkness and Light
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I can't say I have an explanation for why some people have bent braces, the ones on my S13 are perfectly fine. Mine is a 1993 so it is a bit newer, perhaps the distortion occurs when the subframe bushings go and it has more flex. If thats the case then the brace might do a bit of good although I think its a symptom of a larger problem that should be addressed properly. In that situation if the subframe bushings are replaced with new material or supplemented with inserts and the slop is removed, I can't see how the new brace would make any difference.

It IS possible I am misunderstanding the dynamics, if anyone else has a different take please chime in.

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johngriff
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Hey!

While I always appreciate questions about our products, please try to maintain a professional tone.

The functionality of our Subframe Support Brace is very straight forward. The mounting surface of the OEM bar is about 1/8th the area of the RPSport bar. This + a thicker, harder material tension slack in the subframe off the OEM bushing points, to the RPSport Bars, and transferred to the chassis of the vehicle. Because of the reduced slack, and full contact transfer of energy, the strut and spring can keep the wheel on the ground much more effectively, than if the subframe is transferring road energy, and throttle on/off energy back through the links.

We had many different iterations of this part based on different "industry formats" in attempting to quiet IRS wheel hop. In the S13, we were able to find the weak point in the simplest place and with a simple solution, yielding the highest improvement per dollar, and installation time.

Common in the Mustang Cobra community is products very similar in functional design to ours, to tension the IRS subframe and reduce wheel hop.

When this force is applied to the stock subframe bar it is bent, as is the lower subframe bushing carrier it attaches to. More than just the material of the stock brace, it is the mounting pad size that causes it to fail because of the increased PSI on the stock brace.

Basically, bushings good, bad, upgraded, or otherwise does not really matter. IRS Subframes will flex under hard use, and reducing the flex on the two corners (L/R) reduces wheel hop.

Johnny's car from our testing was bone stock, 6x,xxx miles on it, and in very very good shape, he noticed an immediate difference. His bushings were in good shape and the car was never abused.

Jacks car was purpose assembled and tested, and he had subframe spacers in. Watching his vehicle at the track I could see a huge reduction in wheel hop while he was drifting.

I still have not had one return on the braces.

On the S14, nissan addressed the problem head on by making an upgraded front support, which helps allot. The S14 still has wheel hop and there seems to be some "Lawyer Based Engineering" in the S14 that is causing it (Read "We want comfy cars not race cars")

I think RPSport's S14 solution is going to look different than the S13 solution.

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StricNyne
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hey j i shot you an email hit me back when u get a chance !!

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johngriff
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I sent you a loooong email back.

Darkness and Light
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*shrug* well if subframe movement is that much of an issue even with solid bushings then I can see how the subframe brace would improve performance.

I have no issues with the build quality of the brace based on its description, I questioned if it was really a critical area to reinforce. The appearance and layout of the stock brace hardly suggests that it is a major structural member although if rigidity was sacrificed to reduce vibration, noise and harshness it does make some sense. The addition of another arm and mounting point to triangulate the brace on the S14 brace does lend credibility to Nissan reinforcing a weak point.

I will reserve my judgment and observe my subframe braces from now on, if I find myself in need of new braces I'll be sure to let you know.

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johngriff
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Yeah just let me know, our inexpensive shipping works even to Hawaii too!

John

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Space Monkey
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Hey,

John, how are the new ones coming? Did you choose another color or are they black again? Any changes to them?

Thanks man,

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johngriff
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No call from cutter this week, means I follow up next.

Thinking a purple/pink/redish.

Will probably look at color samples next week too.

Not black, want something more exciting!

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Chris28
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Had mine on for 5 track days as well as about 6 months of daily driving and they are still holding up very well. No signs of wear and they are still controlling the wheel hop very well. Only noise I hear from the back now is my tires due to a welded diff, no more clunking.

Highly recommended, great Christmas present. Thanks again John, I'm looking forward to more innovative products in the future.

edit: Oh, and purple with a ton of ridiculous flake in it haha. That would stand out!

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johngriff
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I talked to the Water Jet yesterday.

They run a "two nozzle" machine, which basically can cut the inverted design of the same part simultaneously off of the same drawing file. One nozzle broke, so they were holding off on our job until it was repaired (saves us both money). He called yesterday to say he is still waiting for parts, but is starting the Subframe Support Braces on just a single nozzle because the job has been Approved since Oct/ early Nov.

So Start ordering! I am saying this now because the new pieces will be instock very very soon!

John

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Space Monkey
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John,

If you post a preview of the color they will be, i will order accordingly.

Good day!


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