[3t3p]

Originally Posted by M Fifty

In what way?

The thin steel brace is laughable when you pull it out the car.

The front corner braces when taken off are flimsy in all directions apart from the one that you think it works in. So it's strong edge on and otherwise you could fold it in half while drinking a beer..

So that's what I mean by a joke.

Try that with the aluminium or CF brace. Orders of magnitude stronger.

[Anthony1s]

Originally Posted by 3t3p

The thin steel brace is laughable when you pull it out the car.

The front corner braces when taken off are flimsy in all directions apart from the one that you think it works in. So it's strong edge on and otherwise you could fold it in half while drinking a beer..

So that's what I mean by a joke.

Try that with the aluminium or CF brace. Orders of magnitude stronger.

The front corner braces are bolted in multiple locations, making them stronger than what you feel when you have the whole thing out of the car. It's the difference between bending something 3 feet long vs 8 inches long.

[DanG]

Several vendors have replacement corner braces that they state greatly improves handling. Not sure they add anything more than the strut brace adds. But the corner brace replacement are much more expensive than a strut brace.

[M Fifty]

Originally Posted by 3t3p

The thin steel brace is laughable when you pull it out the car.

The front corner braces when taken off are flimsy in all directions apart from the one that you think it works in. So it's strong edge on and otherwise you could fold it in half while drinking a beer..

So that's what I mean by a joke.

Try that with the aluminium or CF brace. Orders of magnitude stronger.

I think they are designed to work in tension based on how thin and flexible they are.

[DanG]

Finally got a chance to drive my M2. Unexpectedly it has a nice improvement in steering feel. Much more positive. Corners great also. Great cheap upgrade.

[SIE_M2]

Originally Posted by DanG

Finally got a chance to drive my M2. Unexpectedly it has a nice improvement in steering feel. Much more positive. Corners great also. Great cheap upgrade.

I would agree. For value for money this/ultra racing strut braces are a win win.

I’m running bilstein b16 coils on my m2. For me chassis and steering “feel” trump outright power. I had the ultra racing brace on previously which is similar design to yours.

I now have the aluminium m4 brace and did have the CF brace too.

My personal opinion is that if you consider the aluminium/CF strut brace the “gold standard”

The m4 aluminium strut brace alone achieves ~70% of this.

The ultra racing struts et al probably 40-50%.

[DanG]

Seems like this is a lot cheaper mode than using the M2C carbon brace. A lot easier to install also.

[detroitm2]

Originally Posted by DanG

Just installed the Racing Dynamics strut brace. Easy install. Now I just need a chance to try it out.

Did you remove the oem strut brace before putting this in?

[DanG]

Originally Posted by detroitm2

Did you remove the oem strut brace before putting this in?

No. Wasn’t in the instructions to remove the OEM brace. OEM brace doesn’t do much. Just like the side braces, they are way undersized.

[detroitm2]

Originally Posted by DanG

No. Wasn’t in the instructions to remove the OEM brace. OEM brace doesn’t do much. Just like the side braces, they are way undersized.

Right on. Was curious if it just bolted over the existing one. Thanks.

[DanG]

Originally Posted by detroitm2

Right on. Was curious if it just bolted over the existing one. Thanks.

Uses three bolts on each end that are unused by the stock braces.

[M Fifty]

Originally Posted by DanG

No. Wasn’t in the instructions to remove the OEM brace. OEM brace doesn’t do much. Just like the side braces, they are way undersized.

It does something structural as it's damn heavy when you take it off and you need a breakers bar to undo the nuts.

Glad the additional parts helped.

[Matt Devo]

Originally Posted by TargaM2

KC design on mine.

much of an improvement with it? Looks like it's far less expensive than the other options

[eeyang92]

Originally Posted by Matt Devo

much of an improvement with it? Looks like it's far less expensive than the other options

Seems to be steel vs. aluminum. All of the cheaper ones I've seen are all steel, probably lower price as they are heavier?

Unrelated, but is "hinge" on some of the designs a desirable feature?



I imagine this allows the bar to rotate slightly while still bracing the left and right struts against each other. However, the non-hinge designs would seem to do an even better job at bracing? Is there some undesirable stress that the hinge solves?

[DanG]

Originally Posted by eeyang92

Seems to be steel vs. aluminum. All of the cheaper ones I've seen are all steel, probably lower price as they are heavier?

Unrelated, but is "hinge" on some of the designs a desirable feature?



I imagine this allows the bar to rotate slightly while still bracing the left and right struts against each other. However, the non-hinge designs would seem to do an even better job at bracing? Is there some undesirable stress that the hinge solves?

The Racing Dynamics brace I bought was aluminum.

[3t3p]

I believe these types of brace transfer force to the other side as a primary mode of action, it's not static bracing like reinforcing a building.

That's why it's hinged.

[eeyang92]

Originally Posted by 3t3p

I believe these types of brace transfer force to the other side as a primary mode of action, it's not static bracing like reinforcing a building.

That's why it's hinged.

Found some old threads on this - https://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/s...24#post4402324

Seems that the bar will almost always be under tension, thus the hinge wouldn't affect the performance. Also, since a strut bar is essentially a long lever arm, a non-hinge design actually wouldn't help brace the vertical movement much at all.

So you're right - I was just curious if there was any advantage to either design, and it seems like the answer is "not really".

[Bosozoku]

Have had the Racing Dynamics strut bar for about two years now. Only one I could find at the time.

It does seem to make the front end of the car more rigid. Subjectively, rolling over small sharp bumps on one
side of the car feels slightly harsher. Objectively (I think) this means that the shock wave traveling through the sheet
metal propagates across the front of the car much faster, because now there is a direct path for the shock to follow -
straight across the strut tower bar instead of around the front through the corner braces and around the structure
under the bottom edge of the window.

I think of it as improving road feel. You feel what's going on with the tires better, because the vibrations take less time
to propagate and stop. There's less "overlap" between vibrations caused by the road surface, so you feel all of them better.

As for the harshness, it's more or less like when you overinflate your tires by 2 psi. Small but definite increase
in harshness. I've also installed the Turner FCA Monoballs, which feel like another 2 psi of tire overinflation
(and helped turn-in crispness much more than the strut tower bar). But that's another story.

YMMV as always.

And yes, I've read several times that the strut towers are pushed apart under heavy cornering loads.

[thisischoi]

Anyone that installed coil overs have to unbolt the stock strut bar near the struts and leave it unbolted? I recently had a set of Ohlins R&T installed with Ground Control camber plates and when the install was completed, I noticed the stock strut was left unbolted nearest to the upper strut. When asked why it was unbolted, they said the new camber plates and upper mounts didn’t have a place to bolt them down. Am I missing something??

[David.m]

Originally Posted by thisischoi

Anyone that installed coil overs have to unbolt the stock strut bar near the struts and leave it unbolted? I recently had a set of Ohlins R&T installed with Ground Control camber plates and when the install was completed, I noticed the stock strut was left unbolted nearest to the upper strut. When asked why it was unbolted, they said the new camber plates and upper mounts didn’t have a place to bolt them down. Am I missing something??

likely you have the wrong GC camber plates (for M2C/F80/82 with 3 bolt holes for the alloy strut brace), plates for OG M2 have a single bolt for the brace.

[Bee Pee]

Originally Posted by David.m

likely you have the wrong GC camber plates (for M2C/F80/82 with 3 bolt holes for the alloy strut brace), plates for OG M2 have a single bolt for the brace.

Agreed.

thisischoi see attached 1st post from another thread on here - https://f87.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh...27&postcount=1

Reads like your top mounts are like purple KW versions which have only 3 bolt mounts for alloy M2C/M3/M4 oem alloy brace.

You need either specific OG M2 camber plates (for single bolt oem brace) or multiple purpose top mounts like the black ones shown in the linked post which have 4th bolt hole to suit single bolt oem brace in addition to the 3 bolt req'd for the alloy brace.

HTH, BP

[thisischoi]

Originally Posted by David.m

likely you have the wrong GC camber plates (for M2C/F80/82 with 3 bolt holes for the alloy strut brace), plates for OG M2 have a single bolt for the brace.

I thought something wasn’t right. Ugh, gotta make time to go back to the shop again. Thanks for the info guys!