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I don't know if it is needed or not but I put one on my JCW the day I bought the car. It does make me feel good to have it on the car and it really looks good. It does say JCW on it. It seems to be the first thing people mention when I open my hood to show off the engine. I'm pretty sure it does some good or else most truly hi-performance cars with shock towers would not have them. I'm guessing it will help stop mushrooming of the shock towers. I don't think you could go wrong buying one.
Ronnie948
__________________ 2009 JCW
RONNIE948
Daytona Beach, Florida
but I did find the understrut system (TSW X-brace) made a larger difference than I expected. On old time poster (no longer active here) did some measurements and didn't find much strut tower displacement on the R53.
Do some searching for those that have had both the strut bar and the understrut systems.
I installed an upper strut bar a while back and it made no difference. But I re-installed it recently and I do feel a difference. The steering is more responsive. But, my rig has 175K miles on it now. Would I go buy one if I didn't have one? No.
These do make getting to the fuse box a PITA and retreiving the oil filter is also a bigger PITA...I change the oil once a month so it is a BIG PITA!
__________________ Damn it Jim! I'm a doctor, not a scientist! Puresilver 05 JCW Blackleather Anthracite BBS RGR Chrono Xenon Coldweather HarmonKardon iPod
I will recommend it because
1. Prevent the Mushrooming
2. Good responseable for steering.
the only thing i don't like is
1. the STB will able to touch the hood (I know Dinan and M7 have that issue).
2. if you using alta intake box, you may need to modify the intake box to install the STB.
hope this help...
I have bothe the front and rear and lower on my R53.. There is no question it firmed up the front end especially over bumps the front end was less wobbly and didnt shake so much.. If yo have runflats or 18" wheels I would do it
Thanks I didnt mention the proces I went through... I actually did the stress bars first (great improvement with stock suspension and 17" runflats) then added sway bars front and rear ... also Koni FSD shocks ad H&R sport springs rides solid Just got 18" wheels and still very solid no shake over bumps.. just got the alta PSRS an rear control arms as my next improvment...Like I said in the beginning it really helped the stock set up.. The dash and all would shake if you hit a pot hole or bump and after it was installed everything was less shaky.. I have an 05 R53.. plus it was an easy imprvement. I got the carbon fiber one from ALTA and its length gan be set to give it more length to give it pre loaded strength. Theoretically its a unibody car with a subframe mounted to it (the body stiffness is achieved by bending and forming flat metal vs having an old traditional frame-most cars have a unibody)..the bottom of the shocks mount to the suspension/subrame and the top to the unibody.. the perfect reason for the stress bar and why mushrooming occurs its a weakspot either for purformance of age...
I think the real question is do any of these actually work...trying to make the body stiffer is a worth while effort. All else equal the stock suspension will work better with a stiffened body.
It's real the place to start but improvements can be illusive and costly...unless you go with a full blown cage
__________________ Damn it Jim! I'm a doctor, not a scientist! Puresilver 05 JCW Blackleather Anthracite BBS RGR Chrono Xenon Coldweather HarmonKardon iPod
As Meb has mentioned I believe that any bracing that works will allow your suspension to work more efficiently.
The first mod I made to my GP was to change the tires to Mich. Ps2's in the same size 205 40 18's.
The next addition was a Tarrett/Web rear bar. I chose this because it was infinately adjustable and I would be able to tune it with future suspension changes.
I then added I.E. fixed camber plates and a good alignment. This was my choice because I drive this car primarily on the street and wanted the extra negative camber without any added noise. I ended up with negative 1.8 front and negative 1.4 rear. After I installed these the ride actually got smoother, because of the larger bearing surrounded by poly. The added negative camber was a huge improvement.
The next addition was a GTT upper strut brace. I still feel this is the best upper brace available because of the design but is costly because of the shipping. The area that it was most noticeable to me was cornering over uneven surfaces such as frost heaves.
Then came the Madness/Mason Eng. lower front brace. At the same time I installed the Cabrio braces. These additions made the car feel much more planted and mostly eliminated the cars desire to dart violently when passing over a crowned road. There was also an improvement felt when going over expansion joints in the pavement. Also a side benefit was that little creaks in the dash were eliminated. The suspension had the feeling that it was finally able to do it's job.
The last addition was the GTT mid brace. This was a surprise as to how well it tied everything together. The car now just wanted to go in a straight line no matter what the surface conditions were. Everything is dead quite and it now goes where you point it. Because the GP has under body paneling the thought of a TSW "X" brace was not an option for me as it would have required altering the paneling. After thinking about the Madness/Mason lower brace and GTT mid brace vs the "X" brace I came to the conclusion that the mounting points of the Madness/Mason and GTT mid brace were as good or better.
I am entirely happy with the final result for a street driven car and am the type of person that if something was not beneficial I would remove it. The car is now super quiet, feels very planted, wants to go straight no matter the road surface, handles very neutral and is a joy to drive thru the twisty's. I also have the ability to remove all of these mods and bring this GP back to bone stock if I ever wanted to.
I think the best advise I could give someone is to try and figure out just what you want your MINI to do and make a plan. Their is no one item that will do it all. By buying parts that are adjustable in the beginning may save you the expense of replacing or redoing as you progress.
Steve
After reading these forums for a while I setup my car almost exactly the same as you. I do not have the GTT upper brace (yet) or the Webb sway bar. I actually used a pretty standard 19mm rear adjustable sway bar. I have Koni FSD's and also went with JCW springs (which your car would already have). I have a set of IE fixed camber plates and have already installed the cabrio braces.
I do not at this time have the sway bar, springs, or struts installed (hopefully soon). So far with just the Madness bar and the GTT mid-brace the ride and darting is much improved. I also noticed the car no longer wants to wonder on pot-holed roads. Can't wait to get the rest installed. If anyone is looking at a good street setup without the penalties of lowering or coil-overs this is an excellent setup.
The bar pictured above is so feeble as to be laughable. Try an Ireland Engineering bar for one sturdy enough to be effective (although an upper bar is the least-effective of the various suspension braces).
__________________
"You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time." - Abraham Lincoln
After reading these forums for a while I setup my car almost exactly the same as you. I do not have the GTT upper brace (yet) or the Webb sway bar. I actually used a pretty standard 19mm rear adjustable sway bar. I have Koni FSD's and also went with JCW springs (which your car would already have). I have a set of IE fixed camber plates and have already installed the cabrio braces.
I do not at this time have the sway bar, springs, or struts installed (hopefully soon). So far with just the Madness bar and the GTT mid-brace the ride and darting is much improved. I also noticed the car no longer wants to wonder on pot-holed roads. Can't wait to get the rest installed. If anyone is looking at a good street setup without the penalties of lowering or coil-overs this is an excellent setup.
Hunter99
I'm sure that you are going to enjoy your final setup. I believe that your 19mm rear bar will be plenty for the street. The reason I went with the Web/Tarrett bar was at the time I did not have a good feel as to wether or not I would want a 19mm, 20mm, or 22mm so I decided to go for the adjustability. I also feel that it is a very good quality piece of engineering and it has not disappointed me.
Enjoy, Steve
THE ITCH has got it exactly right in his post above.
__________________
"You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time." - Abraham Lincoln
Hunter99
I'm sure that you are going to enjoy your final setup. I believe that your 19mm rear bar will be plenty for the street. The reason I went with the Web/Tarrett bar was at the time I did not have a good feel as to wether or not I would want a 19mm, 20mm, or 22mm so I decided to go for the adjustability. I also feel that it is a very good quality piece of engineering and it has not disappointed me.
Enjoy, Steve
Steve,
That is exactly why I went with the 19mm bar. I did look heavily at the Webb bar and liked it for the excellent adjustability. I just decided that if I am going to use my car on the street then it would be simply overkill and I could use that money towards another mod. Beautiful piece of work, though.
2009 JCW
