[Nil Time]

Greetings, all.

I am thinking of putting a strut brace on the MCS cabrio - especially after reading how good it is on this forum.
Questions...has anyone got the JCW strut brace, and if so, what was approximate cost? Is it any good?

What about the M7 or Helix offerings? Any opinions and comments would be most appreciated.

Cheers,

[Shorty]

Quote: Originally Posted by Nil Time (original)

Greetings, all.

I am thinking of putting a strut brace on the MCS cabrio - especially after reading how good it is on this forum.
Questions...has anyone got the JCW strut brace, and if so, what was approximate cost? Is it any good?

What about the M7 or Helix offerings? Any opinions and comments would be most appreciated.

Cheers,

Personally I found the JCW strut brace to be of little use, very pretty but it didn't really do
a great deal

However, the GTT brace is a different beast altogether
It's probably the best mod i've made to my cab .

[Nil Time]

Quote: Originally Posted by Shorty (original)

Personally I found the JCW strut brace to be of little use, very pretty but it didn't really do
a great deal

However, the GTT brace is a different beast altogether
It's probably the best mod i've made to my cab .

Much obliged, Shorty - where did you source your GTT brace from?

[Nath316]

GTTuning Strut Brace at GTTuning
GTTUNING

[Shorty]

Quote: Originally Posted by Nath316 (original)

GTTuning Strut Brace at GTTuning
GTTUNING

What he said

[Gr1zzLy]

All strut braces are pretty much the same. If there is any marginal difference it's not going to be felt unless you're using it pretty hardcore on the track. The difference between the GTT and other strut braces I've seen is that it's a one piece whereas the others have been 3 pieces. The benefit of having the three pieces is you can just take off the bar if you're doing any engine work. The GTT looks like you have to take off the whole strut brace. Each to their own.

[MickyD]

I have the m7 brace, which was about $320, personally I don't see the value in the ukp219 (about au$520) for the GTT one, but that's just my opinion....

[Nil Time]

Thank you all very much for your advice - it is much appreciated! Now the search begins in earnest!

Cheers,

[minigolf]

I have a Whiteline strut brace which I snaffled on eBay for $160 (RRP is a touch over $200 IIRC). It's similar to the JCW brace. There's some pics in my gallery.

[Shorty]

Quote: Originally Posted by Gr1zzLy (original)

All strut braces are pretty much the same. If there is any marginal difference it's not going to be felt unless you're using it pretty hardcore on the track. The difference between the GTT and other strut braces I've seen is that it's a one piece whereas the others have been 3 pieces. The benefit of having the three pieces is you can just take off the bar if you're doing any engine work. The GTT looks like you have to take off the whole strut brace. Each to their own.

I thought all strut braces are the same until I removed my Works one, and fitted the GTT one.
I've never tracked my car, but it really does transform the handling of my cabrio.

[minigolf]

I wonder if cabrios are more susceptible to noticeable improvements over the hardtop in any case.

[Nil Time]

OK folks...again, thanks very much for all the advice. I believe that I should have one fitted. The next question is can any recommend any one in the Melbourne area to supply and fit one for me?

Cheers

Tony

[dsakko]

Quote: Originally Posted by Shorty (original)

I thought all strut braces are the same until I removed my Works one, and fitted the GTT one.
I've never tracked my car, but it really does transform the handling of my cabrio.

I've got the ProMINI strut brace, which has an off-centric mounting hole at one end to pre-stress the bar. I found once, after having some work done, that it wasn't correctly tightened. After tensioning it up I noticed a big improvement to the mid-corner precision and the solid feel of the front end (note that I've also got the early JCW coilovers and do motorkhana/gymkhana/autocross mine).

So my theory is that the diff. between the bars is more to do with "is there any slack after installation?" rather than "is one bar stiffer than the other?".

[AndrewH]

Quote: Originally Posted by dsakko (original)

I've got the ProMINI strut brace, which has an off-centric mounting hole at one end to pre-stress the bar. I found once, after having some work done, that it wasn't correctly tightened. After tensioning it up I noticed a big improvement to the mid-corner precision and the solid feel of the front end (note that I've also got the early JCW coilovers and do motorkhana/gymkhana/autocross mine).

So my theory is that the diff. between the bars is more to do with "is there any slack after installation?" rather than "is one bar stiffer than the other?".

I wondered about tension when I installed my JCW SB. While tensioning the JCW SB isn't straight forward, it can be done and I did with mine. Is there any rule of thumb for how much or how little you should tension a strut brace? I put a bit of tension on but not too much as I figured that too much would start to stuff up the suspension geometry - although it's probably still pretty marginal

[dsakko]

Quote: Originally Posted by AndrewH (original)

I wondered about tension when I installed my JCW SB. While tensioning the JCW SB isn't straight forward, it can be done and I did with mine. Is there any rule of thumb for how much or how little you should tension a strut brace? I put a bit of tension on but not too much as I figured that too much would start to stuff up the suspension geometry - although it's probably still pretty marginal

Good question!
I wouldn't know. I simply applied significant pressure using tools with fairly short leverage (some spanners) and left it at that. Never thought about it really, so luckily I've tended to have it aligned with the brace in position and tensioned.