Found this online and will be in Phoenix next week.
http://www.vipcustomparts.com/suspension%20parts.htm
Seems pretty decent?

Wanted to get an M7 but didn't leave myself enough time for shipping to the hotel. Or does anybody no anyone that sells M7's in the Phoenix area?
Thanks

 

I bought their strut tower defenders .. pretty beefy items.

have been meaning to purchase the strut brace too.

 

The wife has their strut tower defenders on her r56 as well as there boxster style exhaust. They were on the car when she bought it but the parts seem really well made.

 

I didn't buy them, but I really like the bolt sleeves vs. the diminished bite of the M7 design. I ended up with the Craven, which utilizes a two piece 'sleeve', but the one piece makes more sense.

 

IMHO (and very verified by exprerience)... MOST strut tower bars are going to only tie the struts together and NOT protect the actual strut tower from mushrooming.

I drew a quick (and VERY basic) pic of the issue. From top down:
-Strut tower bar/defender... Has weak area in design that allows the narrow strut mount to deform the tower and as such, whatever is mounted above it.
-This metal of the tower
-SUGGESTED SOLUTION (under plate or IE fixed mount or Camber plates, etc)
-Strut

I do highly reccomend a strut bar and even the M7 (which failed on mine) is a great design when allowed to do its intended job, tie the two struts together, NOT to keep the tower from mushrooming.

So again, NOT blaming M7 at all... just stating that the failure(s) is due to a narrow strut mount on a thin tower metal.

In summation... :p
Protect the actual tower from underneath and then install a tower bar. VIP is a nice looking piece and i do reccomend it!

 

I have the VIP strut brace. It comes with nice, beefy strut tower mushroom-protection plates and a very nicely machined bar that fits nicely over the air intake box on my S. I got one of the first ones he made, and I even had to wait a bit for the final tweaks to the bar. Van was nice enough to send the end plates ahead so I could at least get the mushroom protection going while he finished up with the bar design.

I could feel the passenger side plate pull the top of the tower flat when I installed it, so there was a little bit of mushroom going on there, which was fixed as I repeatedly torqued it down to spec until it finally *stayed* torqued....

Top notch, quality product, IMHO.

I added the IE Fixed Camber plates the following spring (last year) and the combination of the two makes for a car that *loves* to swerve....

C ya,
Dutch

 

I know Van personally and was just having a conversation about his products with a coworker. He puts quality into every part he designs and builds. You will not go wrong....

 

i ordered one for my 2008 MCs cabrio should have it tuesday

 

Used R56 M7 bar here : https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...r-brace&cat=28