Anyone know of a good strut bar? There's so many brands like M7, Eibach, JCW, etc.

So I was wondering what is good to use for the street.

 

I like the look and price of the GTTspec one.

 

I got the one from JCW.

Works great and good clearance. Which means it should work with aftermarket CAI.

 

This is a case of it fitting with your specific CAI. No blanket answer as every CAI is different. Does it matter? For street cars it is just bling. For race cars, you are welding it all up anyway.

Note most are for a fixed distance. Not adjustable. So you can not just slot the fenders to de-camber with any of the bars I have seen. You also can not make small alignment corrections within the stock slot range. So, if you want to actually improve your car handling, you are forced to adjustable camber plates. Not a bad thing, just something to be known.

Ruffling feathers , I know. I am talking STREET use with STREET tires. I am not degrading bling. To each his own. My problem is suggesting a bar does anything detectable for a 21st century car. 64 Falcon ( famously known as the "Monte Carlo Bar", ) 76 Rabbit? Yea. The chassis in those ways were in the tens of pounds per degree of rigidity. Modern cars are in the many hundreds. Add a bar to look cool, but to have an effect on steering response, play with tire pressures. It is a hundred times more significant. If that is not enough, move on to poly bushings. When your race car is so stiff with solid bushing, welded in cage, and totally un-streetable, then you will want a bar.

 

I see. Well yea it's probably useless for my application other than bling but thats alright with me. I have a NM Engineering intake so anything that clears that is fine.

 

NM Clears (i should know i have both) and it adjustable so any slot adjustments can be compensated for. JCW is adjustable as well but has hinge joints at both sides meaning it'll flex and rotate under load if both sides are under different load. NM is more direct along with one other i can't remember the name of. GTSpec (which i also had on my car) is good for clearance of most intake because it hinges out, so the fact that it's hinged ins't that big a deal because it's not side to side but instead on an angle meaning that different load transitions effect it less. ideally a solid bar is what you want :P

Have to agree with TRVGeek on this one tho... that most chassis bracing in the front are nearly useless except in the most intense circumstances. The MINI Cooper is EXTREMELY strong chassis rigidity compared to almost any car out there today. from what i remember MINIs are something like 24,500 nm/degree, a GTI mk6 is 25,000, RX8 is 30,000, rolls royce phantom is 40,000. for reference i believe i read the E46 M3 is around 15,000nm/deg.

 

The TR-6 was, ready, 50 nm per degree. We were proud the TVR M was in the 500 range. No, I did not drop any zero's. Modern cad!

 

We suggest the NM engineering strut brace, it is top quality.

 

I would drop my ability to have kids for 5 years if It meant I could have one track weekend with a tvr! After seeing clarkson toss that around on top gear I want a car that weights the same as my little toe and has the power of a Ferrari!!!

 

Can someone confirm/clarify this. The front struts can be adjusted about 0.5 degree by removing the locating pin on the passenger side. Does the MN bar compensate for this adjustment? Where is it adjustable, does the bar thread in/out of the mounting plates?

 

I like my Gtspec but there are others out there that are really good. If I decide to get another one I would get this one.
http://translate.google.com/translat...ni.html&anno=2

It is toward the bottom.

 

I had the one from VIP on my Cooper, but it won't really fit over any factory airboxes. I loved it, but for now it's just sitting on my floor until I get a new intake for my JCW.

 

That looks terrible, they are only mechanically fastened to the strut tower on 2 points. They should always triangulate an area that is going to receive forces and reactions, and you don't even have to try you just use the existing 3 attachment points provided! Also there is no added strength there to reinforce the connection from the strut assembly to the towers, if your going to attach a reaction load there you might as well encase it to!

That NM bar looks legit though.