this was where a lot of changes happened as well. nothing against ultra racing, but i did go into yoda levels of Zen with Type R lore whithin those 8 months of hibernation. in which i fell in love with the sleek aluminium struts made by honda itself. in his time i also found out that he Type R sedan had a production run of 1400 cars, all made for the japanese market. and within that, for the 1998-1999 model years, there was a very limited production of an OEM rear tower strut bar. it was the same as the front, with a specialized bracket. for some reason this option was discontinued in later models. 

so one by one the Ultra Racing braces came off and were sold to capable hands. i replaced them with the clean and simple OEM aluminium from tower strut. 

the rear tower strut was not so easy to come by. since i couldn't find one in japanese auctions, i then sourced another front tower strut and got a set of custom brackets from Tegiwa motorsports in japan. the only aftermarket company to make them. also in true Type R minimalistic style i stripped the boot of all the trim and gave it a few coats of spatter paint, for that on-a-diet look. 

another little gem was the spare wheel. i had a 4x100PCD spare which mind you didn't clear my GSR calipers. anyways it was redundant with the 5x 114.4 setup so i went about hunting for a donut spare. lo and behold, its the same PCD as the nissan leaf, and since that doesn't come with a spare, suddenly 5 lug spares were the bees knees. everyone wanted one. had to bargain one down to 17,000 from 22,000 at JJ lanka, which was the cheapest i could find. 

the rear also got some custom work done. i removed the Ultra racing rear member brace, and replaced that with:

1. aftermarket lightweight rear lower control arms

2. sickspeed rear member brace

3. Beaks rear lower tie bar. 

mostly since it looks so badass for someone tailing me! just showing off... poddak

the coilovers remain the same, however. they're still good to do and i run the a few clicks north of the softest dampening settings. i have, over time, replaced all the bushings with polyurenthane, and now the camber and toe settings front and rear are perfect. she does creak, and she is stiff, especially the rear, since the trailing arm is now more or less stationary! but hey, id rather that that replace tyres every 6 months...