Mr. Pilo is visiting my secret lab shortly; we will discuss his brace.

 

Pilo, do you have any pictures of the bar uninstalled and pictures of where exactly it is mounted? Your picture doesn't help very much.

 

Just got back from the secret lab.... Trying to gain my bearing.. I was blindfolded and spun in circles so many times to get there, I don't know where I am now.

Actually we had some interesting conversations regarding tis product and some other things that I have in the works. Give me till tonight to get pictures descriptions and how-to's together and we can continue the discussion. And I am not offended by any one that questions the product. Give me idea,s and chance to discuss the technical aspects of it.

Thanks
Dan
Pilo Racing

 

sounds like jlm has his own mini bat cave

 

I have had the Pilo strut bar on my car for about 6 weeks now . I have driven the car many hard canyon miles as well as approx 150 miles at Willow Springs raceway. The only thing i can say is I like the way my car handels and with the additional weight of the audio system i feel that the strut bar is of benefit to me . It mounts in few min by replacing the rear seat upper latch points with slightly longer versions so it is mounted FIRMLY to the upper rear towers.. I am sure that a truly triangluated system would be better but at what cost and how much more involved of a install process. For me it provided what i was looking for and is a viable product.The front strut towers I have tested , four in total ,also do provided a noticable differance and you can even tell the good ones from the bad under hard driving.I've read posts on here saying that those don't make a differance either they must have either tested a bad one or never tested one at all as the improvement is noticable from the first moment you begin to drive.As with most of these forums there will be people putting down ideas for a variety of reasons some valid , many not.The pilo rear strut tower may not double your cornering forces if that is what you are looking for but it DOES help. Page Title maxmini home site

 

>>The front strut towers I have tested , four in total ,also do provided a noticable differance and you can even tell the good ones from the bad under hard driving.

I am looking for a "good" front strut tower brace, since you tested four, please tell me which one would you recomend.

Thanks,

Paul.

 

>> Pilo is under no requirement to disclose ANY engineering information and shouldn't have to...
>>

True, and I don't suspect we'll be seeing any.

 

I have been very busy, and trying to get the pictures... Just so many things going on, I never get any light to get the pics in.. I will get a photo up of the bar and bracket un-installed as soon at I get a chance.. Don't mean to dealy.. just very busy..

Thanks
Dan
Pilo Racing

 

The collaboration is much appreciated guys. I love this idea, and would certainly make such a purchase if there was some triangulation involved. I've had my backseats out for sometime, and there are some very nice potential anchor points in the middle to form an inverted triangle. I somehow feel though that a non-inverted triangle might serve us better, but I need to do some visualizing...

Hey, if you want some shots of the back seat out to see what is there (possible mount spots), let me know...

 

>>>>The front strut towers I have tested , four in total ,also do provided a noticable differance and you can even tell the good ones from the bad under hard driving.
>>
>>I am looking for a "good" front strut tower brace, since you tested four, please tell me which one would you recomend.

Read this previous post:
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...mp;topic=17366
I think Maxmini is partial to the BMP strut brace which is the same as mine. Do not assume that all strut braces work equally well. The BMP at about 3-3.5 pounds is one of the lightest for a reasonable price. I think the titanium bar from Mini Mania is lighter but costs about $299. Some braces are powder coated steel so they are somewhat heavy.

 

For reference, how CUSCO does it on the WRX.








--
Cheese

 

Unfortunately, that design wouldn't be legal for SCCA auto-x classes, but I agree that it would be much more beneficial with triangular bracing.

For all out road racing, that would be the ticket - or a full rollcage, welded in, which would provide that same kind of bracing (or should).

 

>>The collaboration is much appreciated guys. I love this idea, and would certainly make such a purchase if there was some triangulation involved. I've had my backseats out for sometime, and there are some very nice potential anchor points in the middle to form an inverted triangle. I somehow feel though that a non-inverted triangle might serve us better, but I need to do some visualizing...
>>
>>Hey, if you want some shots of the back seat out to see what is there (possible mount spots), let me know...

I've been planning on removing my back seats to do that also...pictures of the back with out the seats would be great. Thanks :smile:

 

You know, I've never posted a photo here before. It appears that it must be on the web first to do so? Usually I just upload like from my desktop...

With the seats out, there are a couple option for such an inverted triangle, as the WRX one above. Again, logic (at least mine) has me thinking that a non-inverted triangle would be more desirable for those upward tendencies...

 

before you guys get all in a lather about a triangulated brace like the wrx one: my guess is that brace is used to connect the upper shock mounts together to make the tower well walls, the floor, and the brace act as a truss beam across the car to support the large vertical loads incurred from landing the car or pounding over big road deflections.

my recollection of the wrx is that the back wall of the seats is just a big hole, allowing you to carry long items (like a surfboard, dude). the triangulated truss shown will act as a shear panel and upper element of the truss beam across the car.

another thing to consider is the exact nature of the floor pan structure. some cars have just a bead stiffened sheet as a floor. i believe the mini has a cross member welded across the floor at the base of the shock towers that will very much stiffen the pan (i don't have my car handy, otherwise i'd check for sure.)

in summary, don't get worked up over this stuff and expect 5 sec lap time reductions (or 2 second 0-60 reductions) until you at least do a first order look at the expected loads and the load path avialble to react them.

flyboy 2160

 

Picks I took of my MINI with the back seats removed.

 

Hey Guy's here is a picture of the bracket. and bar portion.

I'll get install instructions as soo as I get time during the day.



Thanks
Dan
Pilo Racing