Installation:
I did very little of the installation of the watts link or torque arm. Generally speaking, I would budget half a day to do the watts link, and an entire day to do the torque arm. I had many issues (and still have issues) with my midpipe hitting the torque arm.
Performance Pros:
My first event with the torque arm and watts link was an absolute shocker. The car was drastically different in almost every regard. The car had less brake dive, I could get on the power sooner, and weight transfer seemed to happen quicker but was less dramatic and less likely to upset the car. That is mostly due to the torque arms’ increased anti squat %. The watts link on the other hand was less apparent. The watts link really only made itself known when hopping curbs and on bumpy sections of the track. Specifically, pre-watts link, when I would hit a curb, the car would bounce/skip roughly 1/3 the width of the track. Because of this, I always avoided curbs. With the watts however, the car would heave up as I hit the curb, heave down as I came off the curb, and then be perfectly settled. That’s it. No drama or unpredictability. Curbs are now my new best friend. At the end of the day however, the parts did not (immediately) lead to a faster lap time. I had my previous suspension setup absolutely mastered, and I can say with 100% confidence that I was getting everything I could out of the previous setup from a driving perspective. I was a bit shocked to not have gone faster with the tq arm and watts. It is by no means an “instantly drop lap time by seconds” mod like many people seem to think it is. Simply put, the people who say this simply lacked seat time on their original suspension setup, and happened to become a better driver as they went on. Finally, (4 events later), I am starting to drop time consistently. Around 1s on a 2 minute course. But again. How much $$$$ for only 1 second? The main takeaway I had after this first event was the car was much easier to drive. Which is definitely a plus.
Performance Cons:
Most of these cons I think are vehicle and driving style specific. But I also want to point them out to show that you really can’t trust what you hear from everyone on the internet.
The first con of this system is the fact that it does, absolutely, have brake hop. I have gotten brake hop on multiple courses on multiple occasions. Roughly once per session. Many of us thought this wasn’t possible with an s-197 (I read the countless debates of people saying tq arms brake hop on certain chassis, while others said it won’t brake hop on s-197, etc.). Well for me, it absolutely can and does. I can get the car to brake hop if I apply too much brake too quickly. Once the chassis is settled into a braking event, I can apply increasing amounts of brake effort and brake hop will never make itself apparent. However, if I get on the brakes very hard very quickly, a brake hop event will begin. Not a fun feeling. I have video of each and every time the brake hop happened if interested in viewing. This brake hop issue I think is somewhat impacted by the fact that I have s-550 6 piston brembos on my s-197: I have a 9% increase in rear brake bias on this setup. This could potentially increase the probability of brake hop. But regardless, pre-torque arm, this car never, ever brake hopped in the 4 years of autocross + street driving and my 2 years of track driving.
The other con is the fact that my sway bar, damper and spring tuning had to be completely reworked after installing the tq. Arm + watts. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as in a way it proves that the cortex system does increase rear end grip (the car understeered after I installed the cortex system). But for someone who is looking for a pure plug and play, don’t get your hopes up. It took me multiple events and sway bar changes to get the balance back to where I like it (more on the oversteer side of things).
In conclusion:
Would I buy the tq arm and watts system again? Yes. It overall most definitely helped the car, and the closest competitors (Kenny brown rear grip kit) don’t have the glamour of the cortex stuff. Ricer school of thought, I know. Every time I look under the car, I smile. If pure lap times are what you are looking for, I would invest the money elsewhere. This watts link and torque arm package is very much an “end of the build” mod imo. It is nowhere near an “essential”.
I did very little of the installation of the watts link or torque arm. Generally speaking, I would budget half a day to do the watts link, and an entire day to do the torque arm. I had many issues (and still have issues) with my midpipe hitting the torque arm.
Performance Pros:
My first event with the torque arm and watts link was an absolute shocker. The car was drastically different in almost every regard. The car had less brake dive, I could get on the power sooner, and weight transfer seemed to happen quicker but was less dramatic and less likely to upset the car. That is mostly due to the torque arms’ increased anti squat %. The watts link on the other hand was less apparent. The watts link really only made itself known when hopping curbs and on bumpy sections of the track. Specifically, pre-watts link, when I would hit a curb, the car would bounce/skip roughly 1/3 the width of the track. Because of this, I always avoided curbs. With the watts however, the car would heave up as I hit the curb, heave down as I came off the curb, and then be perfectly settled. That’s it. No drama or unpredictability. Curbs are now my new best friend. At the end of the day however, the parts did not (immediately) lead to a faster lap time. I had my previous suspension setup absolutely mastered, and I can say with 100% confidence that I was getting everything I could out of the previous setup from a driving perspective. I was a bit shocked to not have gone faster with the tq arm and watts. It is by no means an “instantly drop lap time by seconds” mod like many people seem to think it is. Simply put, the people who say this simply lacked seat time on their original suspension setup, and happened to become a better driver as they went on. Finally, (4 events later), I am starting to drop time consistently. Around 1s on a 2 minute course. But again. How much $$$$ for only 1 second? The main takeaway I had after this first event was the car was much easier to drive. Which is definitely a plus.
Performance Cons:
Most of these cons I think are vehicle and driving style specific. But I also want to point them out to show that you really can’t trust what you hear from everyone on the internet.
The first con of this system is the fact that it does, absolutely, have brake hop. I have gotten brake hop on multiple courses on multiple occasions. Roughly once per session. Many of us thought this wasn’t possible with an s-197 (I read the countless debates of people saying tq arms brake hop on certain chassis, while others said it won’t brake hop on s-197, etc.). Well for me, it absolutely can and does. I can get the car to brake hop if I apply too much brake too quickly. Once the chassis is settled into a braking event, I can apply increasing amounts of brake effort and brake hop will never make itself apparent. However, if I get on the brakes very hard very quickly, a brake hop event will begin. Not a fun feeling. I have video of each and every time the brake hop happened if interested in viewing. This brake hop issue I think is somewhat impacted by the fact that I have s-550 6 piston brembos on my s-197: I have a 9% increase in rear brake bias on this setup. This could potentially increase the probability of brake hop. But regardless, pre-torque arm, this car never, ever brake hopped in the 4 years of autocross + street driving and my 2 years of track driving.
The other con is the fact that my sway bar, damper and spring tuning had to be completely reworked after installing the tq. Arm + watts. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as in a way it proves that the cortex system does increase rear end grip (the car understeered after I installed the cortex system). But for someone who is looking for a pure plug and play, don’t get your hopes up. It took me multiple events and sway bar changes to get the balance back to where I like it (more on the oversteer side of things).
In conclusion:
Would I buy the tq arm and watts system again? Yes. It overall most definitely helped the car, and the closest competitors (Kenny brown rear grip kit) don’t have the glamour of the cortex stuff. Ricer school of thought, I know. Every time I look under the car, I smile. If pure lap times are what you are looking for, I would invest the money elsewhere. This watts link and torque arm package is very much an “end of the build” mod imo. It is nowhere near an “essential”.
