I heard someone mention that the Cabrio has strut tower connector that bolts to the chassis. all of the early R53s even the coupes have the holes predrilled for these braces. It was mentioned that this would be a good mod for the coupe. Does anyone know anything about this?

 

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...d.php?t=100375

 

I have it on mine, didnt notice any difference. Cant say if it does anything or not, but any little bit helps. Contact custom mini shop, they sell them and the are not that expensive.

 

OldRick...Fantastic write up. Thanks a million. I'm running out to my dealer a buy them.

 

Don't waste your money. I have had a friend take a look at the location of these and he said they would do little if anything at all to enhance the ride/handling of the car. They were most likely added to attempt to address the shakes and rattles of the cabrio.

Oh and he is an engineer at the Ford design center.

 

Scott, your friend hasn't installed one in a MINI.

Oh, and BTW, neither have you, so, once again, you haven't a clue, but insist on sharing your ignorance.

 

I know a guy who will tell you to do all kinds of stupid things, and would appear to be qualified as well. However, many of the stupid things he would suggest are completely moronic.

I bought a set of these braces at AMVIV 5, and will install them shortly, I'll get back to you when they are in :D

 

Funny......he does this for a living. I trust him a whole helluva lot more than your moronic claims.

You claim this is the best thing since the rear strut brace, but it still doesn't change the fact that the reason for this brace was to help eliminate rattles. Your extensive background in car design/engineering has, I am sure, given you a special insight to the reasons for this brace.

 

And another one bites. My friend obviously has a lot more experience with car design/engineering principals than either you or ricky will ever have.

 

I am very very over this argument. Scott, you know what effect your comments will have on rick, and he's just going to respond cos he can't help himself. If you feel like you have to advise people on this matter, why can't you just PM them instead of wasting time arguing with Rick?

Lets see if i can summarize this argument.

Rick believes he feels a difference, and you believe that theoretically, they should make no difference. Now lets just try and move on

 

Okay, your friend is an engineer at the Ford design center. So I'll assume he has access to the CAD schematics, detailed chassis test data, and has examined it thoroughly to determine the value or lack thereof to the braces in question?

Oh, you mean he just glanced at pictures on the internet?

...


I don't care if you're a damn neurosurgeon. If you look at my head without examining the CT scans, MRIs, bloodwork, etc... You are not qualified to make a diagnosis.

 

Let me throw in a ringer...I had an H-sport strut bar hanging around for a few years. My car now has 121,000 miles on it. I installed this strut bar last sunday - for goofs and giggles - and I was surprised by the difference in feel.

Steering repsonse and feel where indeed enhanced a bit - to the level of noticable at my finger tips. I cannot say if thsi is because the car is old, and still have the stock struts on it - being replaced tonight with any luck.

Part of me is not surprised; a unibody will loosens up after a while. I did not experience this stiffness eutopia when the car was new, so both the H-Sport and M7 bars sat around. And by contrast, my 99 Civic Si was transformed ( brand new) into a different car when upper and lower strut bars front and rear where added...obviously wee more a pretzel.

Again, my observations are with an older car driven very hard on street and track, and, the difference in feeling is subtle, not sobering.

 

the conventional wisdom on NAM is that there's no improvement to be made in structural rigidity on the R53. I added a strut bar to my wife's '05 cabrio and didn't tell her. She came home asking me what I did because she noticed it took less effort to correct lane position at speed (not hard driving, just commuting).

for $50 spent, the cabrio braces can't hurt - heck, they're OEM and BMW wouldn't have fitted them unless their engineers knew the benefit. The Coupe doesn't need them as much obviously, but for those of us who've done all the other mods, it's an easy choice to add them. I put mine on the same time as my TSW underbrace so I can't vouch for their usefulness alone, but the combination more than made up for the strut brace I took off my car.

 

Actually that is exactly what he did..........realoem.com has some nice drawings and there are plenty of pic's posted. I sent him a lot of links and info. Not hard to have a very educated opinion of the reason for the braces to be added to the cabrio. Because of the placement and the lack of additional forces being applied to that portion of the body it was easy for him to see why these were added. They are so short and not associalted with any suspension forces, he couldn't see any reason that these would affect the handling of the car. Now NVH is a different story. Because of the length of that portion of the body, it seemed to him that there were some harmonic issues that were being addressed

 

...or crash issues...??? I'm not trying to add fire to the discussion, just contributing some thought.

 

And another myth bites the dust.

As many people who have tried them will testify, the Gen 1 MINIs handling is substantially improved by the addition of lower strut braces and/or the cabrio diagonal brace, thus demonstrating that the car is not all that rigid. The upper strut brace does not make the magnitude of difference that the other two braces offer.

These braces do in fact have a substantial effect on handling, as is quite clear from the increase in understeer after adding the braces.

IMHO, no-one who has not tried these products has anything useful to say about them. They may not be of much value if all you do is cruise the local drive-in, but if you stress the suspension with twisty roads, the difference is obvious and in the right direction.

It's worth noting that anyone who races will testify that adding a roll-cage, which adds stiffness to the frame, will transform the real-world handling of a car. All of these braces are just street-acceptable attempts to add some of this rigidity to the frame of the MINI, and they do work, despite the protests of the ignorant.

 

 

a man after my own custom user title!!

 

Mine are going on today, within the next couple hours. I'll be back soon with an update :D

 

 

I'm an engineer too and have built race cars and yadda yadda... ask your friend what the most rigid shape you can make is. Now, look at the strut tower of a coupe without the braces... see said shape? Now, look at it with the braces, see the shape?

Hint: The shape is a triangle.

 

Yes but you're not his friend!

 

His contention is that the brace is so small and in an area that doesn't have any real suspension forces acting on it thus it is not for a handling issue.

What part of the suspension is located out in front of the strut tower?

Nothing..........only parts of the engine.

But you all can certainly spend your money on what ever you want.......just don't take the word of someone who really doesn't know what this part is designed for. I have offered the only expert opinion on these braces. I encourage any of you to do the same. Don't trust some yahoo on this board that claims a substantial increase in handling simply based on his driving impressions. As most here continue to shout........SHOW ME THE DATA ! !

 

Show me where adding additional cross members in a door assembly will enhance the handling of the car? Or a larger front crash guard? This is basically the same issue.......these braces are located outside of the forces acting on the suspension.

 

I think for the cost why not put a set of cabrio braces on there? It certainly won't hurt a thing & you may get some gain out of it, even if others don't feel you will. It's your car Frank, go for it if you like.