Front & Rear Strut Bars

The best strut bars for a WRX, STI, BRZ, FR-S, Evo X, or S2000 tie the strut towers together so the chassis flexes less in hard cornering, sharpening steering response and keeping alignment geometry stable. The standouts here are the Cusco Type OS bars — oval-profile aluminum shafts with model-specific brackets — and the Tanabe front bar for the FR-S and BRZ chassis. Every bar is built for a specific set of years and models, so match the listing to your car.

A strut tower bar bolts across the engine bay (front) or the trunk (rear) to connect the two strut towers. Under cornering loads the towers try to move independently; the bar resists that movement, so the car feels more planted and predictable at turn-in. Rear bars do the same job behind the seats and can help the back of the car rotate more neutrally.

Look for model-specific brackets first — a bar engineered for your chassis bolts to factory holes with no drilling. Fixed bars are the most rigid, and oval-section tubing like Cusco's Type OS design adds stiffness without much weight. If you run an aftermarket intake or intercooler, check clearance in the fitment notes.

Cusco is a Japanese chassis and suspension specialist with deep roots in rally and circuit racing, and the Type OS strut bar line is one of its signature products. The oval cross-section shaft resists bending better than a round tube of the same weight, and Cusco offers front and rear fitments across a long list of performance chassis — the 02-07 WRX and 04-07 STI, 08-14 WRX/STI, 15-21 WRX/STI, Mitsubishi Evo X, and Honda S2000 among them. For motorsport-bred chassis tuning, Cusco is the reference point in this category.

Tanabe is another Japanese suspension house, best known for coilovers, lowering springs, and exhausts, and its strut bars carry the same chassis-first philosophy. The front bar stocked here fits the Scion FR-S (2013-2016) and Subaru BRZ (2013-2019), where a tower bar makes an immediate difference in steering precision. It pairs naturally with Tanabe springs or coilovers.

Pair a bar with the rest of your handling setup: browse suspension, sway bars, and chassis bracing. Popular picks include the Cusco rear Type OS bar for the 15-21 WRX/STI and the Tanabe front bar for the FR-S/BRZ, and the handling upgrade guide explains how bars work with the rest of the suspension.

Will a strut bar fit my car?

Strut bars are chassis-specific — each listing names the years and models it was built for, like 08-14 WRX/STI or 00-09 Honda S2000. Match the listing to your exact year and model; a bar for one generation will not bolt onto another.

Do I need a tune after installing a strut bar?

No. A strut bar is a chassis brace, not an engine part — it changes nothing about fueling, boost, or timing, so no ECU tune is required.

Is installation difficult?

It is one of the easiest chassis mods: most bars bolt to existing factory mounting points with basic hand tools in under an hour. Torque the hardware to the spec in the instructions and re-check it after your first drive.