ok - i don't want to start another banter about what a upper strut bar is or what is does (or supposedly does) or which one is better.

what i do want to know is, "who is familiar with or uses the alutec strut bar?" how is fitment (issues with raising hood, fitting over aftermkt CAI, etc) and overall quality?

thanx for info and discussion

 

These bars look top notch. I have never seen them before though. Here is the link for those interested.

 

 

pgt - r u familiar with the bar directly or indirectly? i agree it looks great (i've heard it raises the hood much like the M7 bar though), but looks don't always equal performance!

 

ur expecting other than bling from a generic strut bar?

 

it looks like a copy of the Cusco bar I had on my Subaru (at least the carbon wrapped center section and the way it mounts to the strut plates - those Alutec ones are hot!!!). I've had a namebrand one and a $30 Autobacs one on that car....any solid mount like that will have more of an effect than one that relies on bolt tension to stop lateral movement (like the M7 design and others)

fixed

 

Won't do anything for the dreaded mushroom situation however. The lifted hood is a small price to pay if it makes the car work better for you. Nice looking bar in any event .

 

BMP is selling an almost identical bar on eBay for $99, no CF wrap though.

 

so it sounds like trackster doesn't believe the alutec will prevent mushrooming whereas PGT does think that it has solid mounting to prevent mushrooming and assist in rigidity. am i correct?

 

mushrooming is caused by lowering the front too much, which shortens wheel travel. The impacts are transmitted to the shock tower - part of the issue is the OEM tophat - it's part of the issue. A set of Ireland Engineering fixed camber plates and a $99 strut bar > an M7 STB in my opinion. - Better performance and resistance to mushrooming.

I sold my M7 STB and have Craven plates on the way, as well as a TSW x-brace, plus OEM Cabrio braces. No hood bulge, front end stiffness, and in combination with my Cross tophats, resistance to mushrooming. Then again, I only lower the car enough to make it look good....maybe an inch at most, so as to retain important full suspension stroke (Cross is height adjustable without limiting travel).

 

I disagree with this assertion. When I installed the M7 STB on my otherwise stock JCW (running stock S suspension, NOT JCW suspension), my car had suffered a fair bit of mushrooming. Mushrooming is not caused by lowering your car.

My car was mushroomed and was not lowered. This is a design flaw I believe to be inherent in all Minis. Lowering will aggravate and accelerate the problem, yes.

 

yes. I didn't mean it can't happen on a stock car....I saw an '02 just a few weeks ago with bad shrooming and it was mostly stock

 

so PGT if this strut bar could be purchased for less than $75 do you think it's a good investment? investment defined by it will do what a strut bar should do for the MCS.

 

I think a strut bar does little for actual performance, though some protection for mushrooming (depending on design). It's mostly a *bling* mod....$75 is a score

 

well actually I can get it for a little less than that, but since I'm gonna let springs and stiffer sway bars tighten the suspension - my primary reason for putting something on the upper struts would be to prevent mushrooming. If I was gonna pay 50bucks for a nice strut bar that might prevent mushrooming, but could've spent $100 bucks on something else that would definitely prevent mushrooming - i'd rather hold out. i guess that's what i'm trying to surmise here. mushrooming was a rare problem with the bmw e46, but the strut bar there was more bling/front end stiffening. with MCS it really seems like the issue is preventing mushrooming.

so, would you go $100 on strut tower defenders or $75 on the alutec bar?

 

see post 10

 

I wouldn't buy any front strut tower brace other than the M7 brace, because that is the only one I've seen with robust top plates that will reinforce the strut towers and help prevent mushrooming. I'm not familiar with the top hats in post 10 so I cannot comment on them. Possibly they are a good alternative.

I do believe that camber plates and the M7 brace (or tophats) are the best way to prevent mushrooming.

 

Alutec makes some nice parts. I believe they are pretty big in Europe and sponsor some DTM cars (iirc).

If you want anti-mushrooming product, check out the M7 plates. The M7 strut bar didn't fit my stock hood and I haven't bothered to "fix" the underhood cover to make it fit so I'm just running the plate section of the strut bar for now.

If you are more interested in the benefits associated with a front strut bar, then most of the bars out there should be good - JCW, BMP, Dinan etc.

Keep in mind that a strut bar is a very low tech item. Their purpose is to decrease the movement, flex or twist that the chassis may experience between the 2 strut towers. When the car is thrown into a corner, the uni-body chassis twists ever so slightly. A strut bar decreases the amount of movement allowed between both strut towers.

A decent analogy is thinking about a shoe box. The bottom part of the shoe box is the lower suspension/engine subframe/unibody and strut towers. W/o the top, you can easily twist the shoe box. Add the top to the box and its harder to twist.

As far as mushrooming (a more correct descriptor would be deformation) of the strut towers, that is probably best attributable to metal that is not thick enough to deal with the pressures of some suspension and wheel setups. Lowering had little effect on it as it also happened on cars with stock suspension. BMW got cheap with the metal thickness and quality used on a few different car models. The e36 BMW had a similar problem with the metal deforming at the rear suspension points - so did the Z3. The old A1 chassis VWs like the Rabbit had similar issues back in the day also.

 

penelopeG3 - thanx for a great reply and info