From SCCA forums:

14.8.M Strut bars are permitted with all types of suspension. Strut bars may be mounted only transversely across the car from upper right
to upper left suspension mounting point and from lower right to lower left suspension mounting point and may only provide stiffening along one axis

(italics are mine)

What this seems to mean is that any strut tower bar without a Heim joint is going to be SM illegal. That would include My HSport bar and just about all of the other bars I've seen pictures of. The prevailing opinion is that this rule will be further clarified soon, but until then I guess my bar has to go.

 

If you want to be truely legal then it would make sense to remove the tower strut bar until a review and ruling is made in the next few weeks by SEB.

You can follow the discussion on-
http://sccaforums.com/forums/thread/235596.aspx

Personally I think the new wording made things worse and it affects many classes of cars.

Why it was so bad before I don't know, I had not heard complaints about the existing rules.

I have asked for clarification (from my region's event chairman) of our enforcement of the new rules for this week's autocross - the beginning of our 2007 season.

For our MINIs the tower strut bar is optional. If you remove it at least you are loosing weight.

Interestingly if we can find a stock strut bar someday that fits we can install that and it would be legal.

 

I'm hoping for a clarification of the clarification as well. I don't think anybody local would protest, anyway. When I remove the battery box....it might be "FP here I come!"

 

I talked with an SEB member about this. He suggested that the "can only provide stiffening in one axis" can be visualized by unbolting one end (side) of the bar. If you can flex the other end forward and back with just hand pressure (which you can with most commercially available bars) then it doesn't provide any material stiffening above and beyond the stock unibody.

*edit* Just read all of the crap over at sccaforums. After that, I have no idea what the SEB was thinking.

 

Almost all of the MINI strut-tower braces I can think of would fail the "one-axis" test the SEB is talking about. Basically, you unbolt one end of the bar without loosening any of the bolts from the other end, and then you have to be able to move the unbolted end forward-and-backward AND up-and-down without any significant resistance.

So, a bar like the M7 that uses two bolts at each end to fasten the crossbar to the endplates would fail both the forward/backward and up/down tests. Even if the bar fastened to the endplate with only one bolt, that one bolt would likely prevent forward/backward and up/down movement of the other end of the bar, assuming the bolt was tightened to spec.

Realistically, the only way for a bar to be a "one-axis" bar (and therefore legal under the SEB "clarification") would be if it had heim joints at each end of the bar. Such a bar would prevent the strut towers from moving directly toward one another or away from one another, but would still allow motion in the other two axes.

 

I drove autocross today after removing my BMP tower strut bar.
No sense in getting a protest.

I don't think most drivers in my region know about any of the controversy.

 

Don't know if any you have this.
One axis STB "clarification" being rescinded.

http://scca.com/_FileLibrary/File/07...k-may-solo.pdf

 

And there was much rejoicing.

 

And more rejoicing.

Personally I think that was the best thing to do. Seemed like a step backward to make that wording so restrictive.

Why does anyone want to put on a strut bar in the first place but to improve stiffness?

OK, now I can leave my strut brace on for this season. It's only 3.5 pounds.