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Racing Dynamics Sway Bars and Front Strut Tower Brace
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Written by:
Akakubi (http://www.bimmer.org) |
April 1, 2001
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I have a ’01 330Ci with Sport suspension. For my tastes the sport springs are stiff enough, but the OEM sport sway bars are not. The car feels a bit too bulky for a sport suspension. So I decided to upgrade the sway bars and also add a front strut tower brace to optimize the cornering and get rid of that excessive body roll.
I looked at two brands: UUC and Racing Dynamics. UUC sways are great, however, they were too expensive for me and offered virtually the same performance. UUC bars are a bit lighter and made of a bit better material.
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Racing Dynamics are made from steel and paint coated. The sizes are 27 mm Front and 24 mm Rear (vs. 24 mm Front and 21 mm Rear for stock sport sways). R/D sways are three way adjustable both front and rear and come with polyurethane bushings and all the necessary bolts and nuts.
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Note on installation: Buy your own grease (the one that comes with the kit is not nearly enough) and put plenty of it on the bars and inside the bushings to prevent squeaking.
Installation is DIY possible, even if you are not too “technical”. My friend and I did it on a leisurely pace in 3 ½ hours. You will need to have a set of jack stands, a jack and two ramps. All the instructions will come with the kit. However, to make the install easier, you should remove the rear wheels to gain access to the upper mount. You do not need to remove the front wheels to install the front sway bar though.
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Out of the three possible settings I have my sway bars set on the “stiffest” to virtually eliminate the body roll. I find this setting to be the best suited for my likes. The cornering quality changes drastically. While the ride does not suffer like with racing springs, “side-to-side” movement is a lot stiffer. The car corners now like it is on rails – the feedback from the tires is great and the slide is very progressive and controllable.
If you take you car to the track or autocross from time to time, you may want to consider adding a strut tower brace. While during normal driving the effect is not noticeable, during hard cornering on the track you can feel its added bonus. At the limit the front stays totally “flat” on the road (even more so than just with sway bars). You can best feel the difference during a fast S-curve when you make a fast transition from side to side.
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Installation is a breeze and takes about 30 min total. You will need a Hex wrench, however.
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I have been using both of the upgrades for about 6 months already. I am completely satisfied with the performance they provide and their build quality. So far I haven’t had any squeaks or slippage of bushings.
Everyone I know that have installed the sway bars say that it is a single best performance mod you can add to your Bimmer. If you do not track your car, skip the strut brace. Besides looks it will not give you much improvement in daily driving, since the E46 chassis is already very stiff.
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