[eddie_yvp]

Decided to go with the Skene mount - drill baby drill! No intention to take the plate off so had no concerns with drilling the bottom of the bumper but wanted something a little lower profile than the stock mount. Overall pleased with it - some pics below. And it is adjustable so the plate can go another inch or two higher.

[boostm3]

Originally Posted by Reedomn

Much simpler solution. And NO it doesn't block air flow. $0.25. Two twisty ties.
I'm sure I'll get flamed but it works great.

How does that not block airflow?! Id be interested in comparing your IAT before and after installation. Looks like its blocking a lot of air flow.

[Nezil]

The stock plate mount blocks about as much as the Carbonio mount, so I wouldn't worry too much about it being an issue from the point of view of doing damage to the engine. Having said that, as we've all seen, the plates in Europe are long and thin rather than the more square US style, and they don't block at all.

I suspect the stock US mount does block air enough to make the IAT higher and the car pull timing on hot days if driven very hard, but not enough to cause any damage.

Personally, I'm looking for something that will only ever be fitted if I get a ticket, or when parking in SF, and then removed promptly afterwards. I'm toying with the idea of making a magnetic mount like I had on my last car and now have on my wife's, but it's a bit of work putting magnets inside the bumper, and the Carbonio really does look like a pretty good solution. magnets will cost me around $20 and a few hours work, Carbonio a little more, but time is money!

I'm still in the 6 month period where in CA you don't even need plates, and I can probably stretch that out a bit if I want to push my luck... Don't need to worry about it until the summer.

[bobert]

Originally Posted by boostm3

How does that not block airflow?! Id be interested in comparing your IAT before and after installation. Looks like its blocking a lot of air flow.

My Carbonio is mounted at almost exactly the same spot as his front plate mount - it's hardly blocking any airflow. Now THIS you would think is blocking a lot of airflow, but I've had my Miata's front plate like this for several years and the car is fine - it may be hard to tell from this pic, but air can get under the plate as well as the side. I definitely had no worries for my M2 front plate since it's nowhere near as bad as this.

[crqflier]

This is what the Sto n Sho looks like when properly installed. No drilling. Comes with protective wrap and rubberized strap to keep things minty fresh.

[snipersix]

Just ordered

[eddie_yvp]

Originally Posted by bobert

My Carbonio is mounted at almost exactly the same spot as his front plate mount - it's hardly blocking any airflow. Now THIS you would think is blocking a lot of airflow, but I've had my Miata's front plate like this for several years and the car is fine - it may be hard to tell from this pic, but air can get under the plate as well as the side. I definitely had no worries for my M2 front plate since it's nowhere near as bad as this.

I think he was referring to the twist tie solution from earlier in the thread - which is similar to that Miata set up - not my Skene mount - which I agree is pretty similar to the Carbonio mount in how I have it set up. The Skene can go up another couple of inches if one is concerned about the airflow - but I prefer the looks of it mounted a little lower.

I guess the benefits of the Skene over the Carbonio is more flexibility in positioning (can set it up higher), less expensive, and less concern of damage to the plastic grill if a car bumps into it (or going through a car wash). Negative is obviously having to drill and potential damage to the bumper itself if somebody bumps into it. And of course not as easily removed, but not a consideration for me as I don’t plan to take it off.

[boostm3]

Originally Posted by bobert

My Carbonio is mounted at almost exactly the same spot as his front plate mount - it's hardly blocking any airflow. Now THIS you would think is blocking a lot of airflow, but I've had my Miata's front plate like this for several years and the car is fine - it may be hard to tell from this pic, but air can get under the plate as well as the side. I definitely had no worries for my M2 front plate since it's nowhere near as bad as this.

I dont think you understand my point. The Miata doesnt have an intercooler. the M2 does. I dont care so much about blocking a little flow from the radiator, but, trust me, on hot days, combined with turbo compression, IAT (Intake Air Temperature) rises precipitously.. Ive measured over 100 degrees difference in IAT values when the intercooler is compromised or missing.. The only way to know if performance is being affected is to measure IAT on a hot summer day with and without your plate mount.

[Bt12]

Originally Posted by boostm3

I dont think you understand my point. The Miata doesnt have an intercooler. the M2 does. I dont care so much about blocking a little flow from the radiator, but, trust me, on hot days, combined with turbo compression, IAT (Intake Air Temperature) rises precipitously.. Ive measured over 100 degrees difference in IAT values when the intercooler is compromised or missing.. The only way to know if performance is being affected is to measure IAT on a hot summer day with and without your plate mount.

100 degrees... i dunno man. Considering most FMIC upgrades are 10-20 degrees given the larger cores... that sounds excessive. Also not all IC’s are in the front and in general works fine.

[boostm3]

Originally Posted by Bt12

100 degrees... i dunno man. Considering most FMIC upgrades are 10-20 degrees given the larger cores... that sounds excessive. Also not all IC’s are in the front and in general works fine.

Those are measured values coming from my use of a Vortech blower in a Dinan kit on a '99 E36 M3. The kit didnt come with an intercooler. When we raisied the boost a few psi, sans intercooler, the heat soak was ridiculous. Made it feel worse than no forced induction at all. I subsequently installed a water injection kit from Aquamist which helped considerably, but as we continued to tune and increase boost, ultimately, a water cooled aftercooler was installed. During testing times, when we had pump issues with the aftercooler, temperature deltas ran right around 80-100 degrees. Im not making the point that flow disruption on an intercooled M2 will run temps that high..

All Im saying is that cars with forced induction are Very sensitive to heat soak issues, especially when dealing with stock intercoolers that are nearly maxed out from the factory as it is. As I said, the only way to be sure is to measure the IAT delta with and without the plate mount which sits directly in front of the intercooler on the M2.

[jmh600cbr]

anybody have a coupon code for carbonio?

[bdogk]

Originally Posted by jmh600cbr

anybody have a coupon code for carbonio?

Yes, i'm interested in the coupon code as well if anyone can provide. Thanks.

[jmh600cbr]

Originally Posted by hjk

Yes, i'm interested in the coupon code as well if anyone can provide. Thanks.

I spoke to them. They don't do promos. Bought it already.

[DoZZa]

This looks like an interesting product.

But I wonder how it would work with a UK number plate.

Currently I have my plate stuck on the front bumper, looks fine, but I like the idea of this mount.



I dont particularly like screws showing on a number plate, stuck on plates look a lot cleaner, whilst not as secure.

It looks like the screws that mount the front part of the mount to the rest of the mount are not counter sunk. This would of course make it impossible to use an adhesive tape to attach the plate to the mount.



Can anyone provide some detailed, close up shots of this mount without a plate attached please.

Thanks.

[bobert]

Originally Posted by DoZZa

But I wonder how it would work with a UK number plate.

It looks like the screws that mount the front part of the mount to the rest of the mount are not counter sunk. This would of course make it impossible to use an adhesive tape to attach the plate to the mount.

Those two screws only hold the plate on - they're not holding the front part of the mount to the rest of it, so you should be able to just leave them off.

That said, Carbonio does offer a plate bracket for "Rest of World" vs one for North America, so you may want to check out that option.

[geogerf]

Originally Posted by Nezil

The stock plate mount blocks about as much as the Carbonio mount, so I wouldn't worry too much about it being an issue from the point of view of doing damage to the engine. Having said that, as we've all seen, the plates in Europe are long and thin rather than the more square US style, and they don't block at all.

I suspect the stock US mount does block air enough to make the IAT higher and the car pull timing on hot days if driven very hard, but not enough to cause any damage.

Personally, I'm looking for something that will only ever be fitted if I get a ticket, or when parking in SF, and then removed promptly afterwards. I'm toying with the idea of making a magnetic mount like I had on my last car and now have on my wife's, but it's a bit of work putting magnets inside the bumper, and the Carbonio really does look like a pretty good solution. magnets will cost me around $20 and a few hours work, Carbonio a little more, but time is money!

I'm still in the 6 month period where in CA you don't even need plates, and I can probably stretch that out a bit if I want to push my luck... Don't need to worry about it until the summer.

I bought the Sto N Sho just for these reasons. Taking it on and off is just a matter of pulling the pin, so that if you know you’re going to park in a highly cop ridden area, you can easily fit it without having to bring any tools with you.

[alscks0414]

Originally Posted by bobert

Those two screws only hold the plate on - they're not holding the front part of the mount to the rest of it, so you should be able to just leave them off.

That said, Carbonio does offer a plate bracket for "Rest of World" vs one for North America, so you may want to check out that option.

I live in Canada and ordered according to the regional size spec and just receive last week Friday.

Got it assembled and has top and bottom screws (total in four). As Canada US (majority of States I think) shares same size spec of plates, I cant understand why you have received one with two screws but I received one with four.

However, it is definitely a very sturdy mount. I also have US Mill Works tow hook mount but did not like the look it mounted at the side of the front bumper so I decided to order Carbonio and looks fantastic to me.

Cant really see the top two screws but it is definietly there. I can post another picture later on if someone wants to verify

[bobert]

Originally Posted by alscks0414

I live in Canada and ordered according to the regional size spec and just receive last week Friday.

Got it assembled and has top and bottom screws (total in four). As Canada US (majority of States I think) shares same size spec of plates, I cant understand why you have received one with two screws but I received one with four.

Cant really see the top two screws but it is definitely there. I can post another picture later on if someone wants to verify

Weird - mine looks just like the diagram above, taken from their website. Maybe they recently changed the design to have four screws?

[alscks0414]

Originally Posted by bobert

Weird - mine looks just like the diagram above, taken from their website. Maybe they recently changed the design to have four screws?

Could be..
I will have pictures taken from existing mount when i get back home tonight.

[ZPrime]

^^ Interesting. I know some US plates don't have holes in the bottom, only the top (since many shitty US cars don't have 4 holes)... I wonder if only the Canadian version of the mount has spots for 4 holes?

I've been thinking about ordering one of these but definitely want one with 4 holes (Ohio gives us all 4).

[Bt12]

I just drilled into my bumper this weekend to mount my plates with the bmw front plate holder... oh the pain. Should have bought one of these

[alscks0414]

Originally Posted by ZPrime

^^ Interesting. I know some US plates don't have holes in the bottom, only the top (since many shitty US cars don't have 4 holes)... I wonder if only the Canadian version of the mount has spots for 4 holes?

I've been thinking about ordering one of these but definitely want one with 4 holes (Ohio gives us all 4).

US size spec (including where holes are) is the same in Canada
6 in × 12 in (152.40 mm × 304.80 mm)

You should be receiving the same product as mine. I will say four screws do way better job holding the plate on the mount.

It does give very sturdy feel once installed and also very easy to remove with one hand operated screw (no tools needed) when you need to wash the car.
Found this is way easier than US Mill Works tow hook plate mount as I have both. And personally I like to have plate at the middle.

Here is a picture showing 4 screws in position on the mount with plate on. Could not get a very good angle as it is mounted on the car at this moment but you can see that there are top 2 and bottom 2.



Cheers