JCW Strut Brace Update

You can see several pics from this MINI2 post.

I have to say, after seeing the Dinan brace several times, I’d still opt for paying the extra $70 for the JCW brace.

That $320 includes dealer installation right? It’s painted carbon fiber, right?

Wow, That’s a ridiculous price for any strut brace. Uh, IMHO.

No word yet…

Boy, $320???

The strut brace is manufactured by Wiechers in Germany where the part is €140. Some vendors here have the part for ~€120 ($154, tax included).

By the way, installing the strut brace is a matter of 5 min. Unscrew the nuts on the domes, fit the strut brace, make sure you buy a set of new nuts and use them to fasten (torque: 34 Nm) the strut brace on the domes.

Cheers Philip

Cool – thanks for the update, Gabe! While at MINIs On The Dragon, I spoke briefly with Jeff from MINIUSA, who was in attendance with a loaded JCW MCSC (sans JCW suspension, of course, but it did already have the brace). I asked him about the strut brace, and he explained that they were all being held up simply waiting for the proper installation instructions!

What surprises me most about this is that JCW is a British company, so you’d think that the instructions in English would have been readily available all along.

Ok. For us newbies. What does a strut brace do? This isn’t included in the JCW suspension kit? (!)

Strut bars reinforce the car’s front structure against deforming under stress, especially during hard cornering. Depending on how stiff that structure already is, and how you drive, they may or may not do anything useful.

There’s a long running quasi-religious debate about whether non-hinged bars are better than hinged ones. (Hinges at the ends make the bar easier to install.) My opinion is that since there’s zero downside to buying a non-hinged design, it makes no sense to risk potentially inferior function with a hinged one. This isn’t an engineering analysis: it’s simply covering my bets.

So I rate the JCW (and many others) unacceptable.

The other thing a well designed strut brace can do for the Mini is to help protect the strut tower top sheet metal from the mushrooming problem, at least if the mounting plates make full contact in that area. This eliminates several other strut bars from contention.

Remaining “good” (by my criteria, obviously; feel free to disagree) designs that I’ve found so far are Helix, Dinan and a forthcoming product from M7.

Neil 05 MCS, w/LSD!

So, a (nother) waste of money. Why did JCW bother to come out with this? So the car looks cool with the hood up? I am becoming disenchanted with the whole JCW thing in terms of “bang for the buck”. They won’t sucker me on this one.

You can make the JCW strut tower work on the MC by buying a modded (lower profile) battery cover from promini.com

Greg – MotoringFile isn’t a forum site so we really have no forums for questions like this. We are a news site that allows users to comment on stories that are posted. For general questions (like the one above) I’d recommend going to a forums based site like North American Motoring or MINI2. I would imagine you’ll have much more luck getting answers.

Hope that helps.

I’m with Greg,

For the minimal gains this strut bar will give you, considering the stiffness of the Cooper frame already, JCW is asking an awful lot for this piece. What it tells me is that there are a lot of people willing to pay for JCW parts because they’re JCW parts.

I understand the whole warranty thing when it comes to the engine mods, but this bar could be two thirds to half the price. I consider it engine bay dressing and not much more.

Looks like something that should be selling on ebay for $35 to me.

Hey,

What was that….$154…..outta Germany……Group Buy, Group Buy, Group Buy…….what about it Philip sounds like you could work it for us mini blingers…. a buck fifty four sounds good to me, let us motoringfilers again share the good, still love my armrest by the way.

Please email me what the front shock tower nuts should be torqued to when replacing with new Dinan Strut bar. Also how much is supposed to be tightened down on Dinan strut Bar? Anyone have the “manual” for this product. Ibought it second hand and need installation info. Thank you.

John Cooper website lists a Motorsport, solid Strutbrace for ALL minis @ £100. Can possible require small mod to sound insulation on bonnet underside.