Well I finally got the GTT Lower mid chassis brace installed today, and I'm pretty impressed.

First, for background, I like my car to have a rigid platform and soft suspension, attached through reasonably compliant suspension. My suspension currently has Koni FSD's, urethane front and rear control arm bushings and lower engine mount, and three braces (now four). It's street driven, mostly on hilly, windy country roads. I've got an IE strut-top brace, Mini-Madness forward-trapezoid-type lower frame brace, and Mini Cabrio diagonal braces.

Of the above,the STB is almost useless, the diagonal braces are a nice low-cost upgrade, and the lower frame brace works quite well - better than the OMP brace it replaced.

The surprise to me was that the GTT mid-brace is also a pretty big improvement, almost as much so as the M-M lower forward frame brace.

What the GTT does is to tie the aft end of the lower subframe much more tightly to the bottom of the body, and brace the two sides of the sub-frame together across the "crease" where the exhaust runs. It reduces potential flex in the attachment of the engine and wheels to the body, and reduces geometry change under cornering stress.

The GTT brace is a nicely made piece, and reasonably priced at about US$125. Installation is about 10 minutes once you get at the bottom of the car - remove and replace four bolts.

The results were both distinct and obvious. When accelerating hard on a wet road, my tires (with LSD) would shudder and the car would swing from side to side at times, as they lost and regained grip - that is almost gone. Braking - same thing. At speed in a straight line, the car has far less tendency to follow the dips and bumps in the road - there is less kick-back from the wheel, and a real sense that the car is willing to go straight no matter what the road does, even hands-off. Cornering is noticeably more predictable, with both wheels holding traction quite a bit better, instead of bouncing around on irregularities.

As you can guess, I'm pretty impressed, although I expect that having the other three braces made the effects of this one much more obvious than they would be if you just added the GTT brace to a stock car.

Now for the price - 85 British Pounds is about US$125, reasonable, but GTT wanted 39 Pounds for S&H - about US$56. When I griped about the shipping cost, they backed off to "only" 29 Pounds (still US$42) and still a total ripoff to mail a piece that maybe weighs three lbs. if it was wet.

To top off the ripoff, it took twelve days to get here , as they mailed it instead of shipping via UPS or FedEx. My guess is that the cost to mail it was maybe $15, so it appears that GTT is not very interested in doing business with US customers, for whatever reason.

The only part that annoyed me about this was the shipping and handling time and completely excessive cost - the brace is a really nice upgrade - recommended. It would be a really good opportunity for someone stateside to make up a knockoff from steel, and sell it at a nice profit for maybe $60 + $15 for S&H.

 

I don't know about shipping to the states from the UK, but I do know that shipping to the UK or anywhere outside the US Territories, yes even Canada, is becoming a big PIA and cost's are going nuts. USPS is the cheapest, but is slow and tracking is bad. UPS and FedEx track well but the cost is We are shipping many things via USPS out of the states but it's not getting cheaper or easier. Even shipping in the States is going up all the time. Many parts cost more to ship then the cost of the part.
Getting off my soap box now.

Rick, Thanks again for a great report of another part and for investing in the MINI Family with your dollars and time to save the rest of us dollars and time.

 

It's GT Tuning (not Tech).

About the shipping... you can check the cost online. The cheapest shipping option from UPS to ship a 3 kg package from GTT (postcode DT11 7UZ) to me at 94109 would cost 72.38 GBP and take 7 days.

 

All I can tell you about the shipping is that I buy a lot of fencing gear from a company in London, and shipping is included in the price, which is the same that european customers pay. The goodies consistently get here in four days, trackable all the way.
(Title corrected to GT Tuning)

 

GTT's business ethos is a bit sketchy (took me 2 weeks to get a refund and an irate call from my wife) but in defense of the shipping costs, it is quite difficult to get cost effective shipping with useful tracking here in the UK. Unless you have a contract with, say, UPS rates are very very high and you are left with only Royal Mail which has next to no useful tracking. Just my 0.2 cents or pence.