Just curious if anone here has installed these chasis braces from Cravenspeed and any feedback?

 

Very curious about how these do as well.

 

Expected effect?

 

http://www.cravenspeed.com/the-big-pair/

I want them.

 

Can't comment on these specifically but I installed something nearly identical on my old RSX ("control arm tie bar") and noticed zero difference in handling.

 

Never read a post about this, but a bunch of people put in the strut brace thingy that goes under the hood and I never heard that anyone was impressed with that. This looks a little more substantial. The Roadster (convertable) and Coupe supposedly have stiffer chassis/frames than the R56 but I have no idea what the diff is.

 

I'm curious as well.

 

Just installed these tonight. I hadn't realized how "loose" the car was. This does indeed tighten up everything. More go-kart stiffness. Slightly harsher ride. Major improvement in steering response.

 

^Awesome, how was the install? Looks like it would only take a few minutes if you have a lift.

 

Indeed, if I had a lift, it would have taken about ten minutes to deal with six T40 and two 18mm bolts... as it was, it took 15 minutes to get the MINI's *** in the air, 15 minutes to install, and 15 minutes to get it back down.

I love jacking up the front to put the jackstand under the rear support point!

 

Innnteresting... I was a bit skeptical because inch for inch aluminum is less rigid than steel, and the new pieces didn't seem considerably thicker.

Might have to give these a try though...

 

Interesting, thanks for the report.

 

Any updates on this? Anyone else installed these?

 

I hope to get mine installed in the next week or so. They are considerably thicker than the stamped steel that come on the car.

 

Since I last posted in this thread I actually bought and installed the braces myself... Happy camper here!

 

I thought about these too but hell mines so stiff when I go in at angle to a inclined drive way one of my rear wheels leaves the ground. Is your suspension stock otherwise ?

 

JCW PRO Coilovers but when I bought the braces I had the stock suspension.

 

We have noticed a nice change in handling on the F56 with the Big Pair. And yes, Install is a breeze.

 

Is this just the nm springs doing this? I've noticed it once or twice but not too often! XD

 

Yes. Even though lowering springs make the car sit on the bumpstops, the wheel rate is still much softer than the torsional rigidity of the chassis. Any perceived change in chassis stiffness is likely via acoustic resonances changing in pitch or NVH changing cabin vibrations.

To put it in perspective, the wheel rate of a stock MINI is about 4.5 NM/inch, and an R53's chassis torsional rigidity is 24,500 NM/degree. You'd have to essentially run your car into curbing at speed to flex the chassis measurably.

 

That's incredible! Thanks for the info! You can definitely hear the whole car flex as it goes up and incline at an angle. It scared me the first couple of times but it's not so bad now

 

To put it in perspective, the MINI's chassis rigidity is similar to a last-gen Mercedes-Benz S-class [W221]. The reasons you don't hear the chassis flex in an M-B are two-fold. 1) they spend many more development dollars ensuring exactly that; all the plastics and contacting materials use rub-tape or felt so they don't produce a noise even with the very small displacements they see, and 2) the suspension tuning is much softer than the MINI, so more motion and energy is absorbed by the suspension and not transmitted into body structure, where your seat is directly bolted. Drive a Mk5 or Mk6 VW GTI, however, and you "hear" a bunch of chassis flex, though in reality the rigidity is also on-par with the MINI. Perception can be very different from measured reality.

 

Are you talking about the F56? I haven't been able to find any rigidity data for this chassis.

 

I'm referring to the all the MINI's, however only the R53 was released with an exact body rigidity number within the press release. Every successive MINI generation has been referred to as "stiffer" without any disclosed numbers to go along with that assertion. BMW's rather hit-n-miss on this particular metric.