Strong Butt Strutt (for e30 convertibles)

[nickmp0wer]

I *think* i will be making these in the next few weeks

[Jordan325iC]

That would be cool, you could count me in, assuming they are reasonably priced.

[benDASHDASH]

Well..?

[e30Matt]

The placebo effect is a wonderful thing.

Referring to rear strut bars, of course.

[golde30]

The placebo effect is a wonderful thing.

Referring to rear strut bars, of course.

Just want to add a comment... I had one of these on my 318is, and with M3 springs it really helped tie the rear end in in corners. The rear suspension definitely reacted more as a whole at turn-in, and the car felt much more planted. I had to remove mine due to ground clearance issues after I put the GCs on, though.

My friend Carl now runs it on his ///M Coupe, and he says it makes a world of difference.

hehe.

[Insanity]

Strut bars are not useless. I've seen a number of people claim that they're just for show and don't do anything, however, a number of people have done quite a lot of independent tests that show the bar will generally experience upwards of 300lbs of expansive or contractive forces under various driving conditions.

[sbullard878]

making my own

I think i'm going to make one of these out of 1/2 inch 1/8th wall tubing like I did my front strut bar will cost about 35 bucks

[thereisnoyun]

freaken piece of metal

I doubt it'll cost you that much if you go to a body shop and have them fab it and install it for you... Thats fucken ridiculous to pay for a chunk of metal

[nefarious7907]

Thats so freakin rediculously overpriced, $100 or less and I am game.

[e30paradise]

bullshit son

you have no clue. If you have one to get dimension off of, you can make one in a few hours max. That is probably the easiest part to make I have ever seen. As another poster said...if you think that is hard to make you have probably never seen a machine shop.

[Aptyp]

I think this is a slightly more expensive, but a painless way of replacing rear subframe bushings. And to all the people with rear shock tower braces, they DO NOT WORK. The way e30 suspension is set up, you have to connect the top of the subframe to the upper spring mounts (that has to be done through inside, in a form of a roll cage). Again this is based on tracking my hard top, Z3's and IC's may be different, but how many people track convertables?

[nefarious7907]

I have heard that if you were to tie a string from one shock to another, and jacked up one corner of the car either front or rear that there is enough twist in the chassis that it will cause the string to bow.

[CorvallisBMW]

Did anyone ever end up making these things? 'Cause I'm about to make one this week before I put my subframe back in to the convertible.

EDIT: Has onyone put one of these on a heavily modded car? One with stiffer springs and bigger sway bars?

[tonytony]

bored and browsing around and after seeing pics of it installed i still dont see how much good it'll do. the subframe is a pretty solid piece of metal so i dont see how this piece of metal will solve anything, besides looking kool.

[fporro]

bought one for $ 120 from a z3 guy., way too heavy and not much clearance on lowered setups.

eventually traded it for a tow job, yez.