Hello All,

I am considering adding a M7 upper strut and Madness Lower Stress brace to my "new to me" R52 convertible.

Open to feedback but from what I have read both bars are best of breed and will certainly tighten things up on the Convertible.

Thanks.

 

I have the M7 strut bar but nothing on the bottom other than a stiffer rear sway bar. I have some posts here on the manner in which the crossover bar attaches to the strut towers as the bolt holes are slotted. It could be more bling than good. There are allot of mods that are placebos.

MINIs are very great handling cars even in stock form. If you are tracking the car and concerned with tenths of seconds, get a tin top. If you want a great handling street canyon carver with a drop top, stay with the R52.

 

The problem with the M7 bar is that it is multi part so that reduces the amount of stiffening the bar can do. Also we have found that whatever compound of metal the end plates are made of they will still bend and mushroom as we had this happen to several customers.
We actually been making our own bar to solve these issues for several years now. As we made a one piece bar, and used studs in billet aluminum end plates to mount it. Giving it strenght and having the best chance at doing the most to stiffen the car.
https://www.waymotorworks.com/wmw-st...e-r52-r53.html

As for the lower brace the madness suffers from the same downfall as most under body braces. If you look at it installed most the brace follows the subframe. This is NOT where you need stiffening as the subframe is already stiff. The body and the open area where the subframe is not mounted is the weak part. That is why the engineers at the TSW company came up with the X brace as it crosses the open area and that will actually stiffen up the car.
https://www.waymotorworks.com/tsw-xbrace.html