Possible new Strut Brace Group buy!!!

[maverick]

Originally Posted by DSKM3

OK folks - I spoke with John today and I'm heading up Sat morning (16 Jan) so he can get the fitment details he needs and we can get this thing moving.

I will post afterwards to let you all know how it went.

I have heard from John and I have seen the photos and it looks like we have a winner in the works thanks much to you and your willingness to help and John for being eager to develop a new bar just for are special machines.

I will post soon as to what comes next.

Thanks
Dave

[DSKM3]

Originally Posted by maverick

I have heard from John and I have seen the photos and it looks like we have a winner in the works thanks much to you and your willingness to help and John for being eager to develop a new bar just for are special machines.

I will post soon as to what comes next.

Thanks
Dave

I was at John's shop at about 0830 until around 1100. John had the rear loop already fabricated and most of the fitment work was done on the front bar and angle supports. I believe the final product will be a really nice piece, custom designed for the ti. Having the car there was invaluable, as it is easy to see why this would be difficult to do by memory or even photos. There are a few areas where the clearances were close and fine tuning was necessary.

As a side note, John was pleasant to work with and he has an impressive race car development pedigree, having worked with Indy Car teams, Can Am teams, and the successful Nissan sports prototype car effort of the 1980's. His shop is an informal museum for those who appreciate that period in racing and know what to look for.

The prototype weighed in at about 5 lbs in steel. The attached pictures will give you all a feel for the design and some of the adjustments yet to be made.

Next step as I understand it is John will produce the first article and then we will do a test fit. Depending upon when it's ready, I will probably head back up for this.

[tiFreak]

nice, any idea how much it will cost?

[maverick]

Originally Posted by tiFreak

nice, any idea how much it will cost?

Give me a couple of hours and you will get the whole deal!!!

[tiFreak]

thanks, it's probably more than I can afford but we'll see

[maverick]

I have been in touch with John and here is where we are and where we will end up very shortly. I am waiting only now to hear back about when the production jigs will be ready and how we might test the first production bar to be 100% ready to have the group buy bars shipped out ASAP with a guaranteed fit on any non-wrecked/tweaked cars.

The new E36/5 318ti front bar works with the stock air box and should easily work with most any aftermarket CAI. It clears the stock intake which is the stumbling block of most of the 6-cyl bars fitting our cars. It clears the battery box and allows for + height batteries as well. It is very similar in layout and construction to the Rouge Engineering RaceBrace made for 6-cyl
E36’s as John designed and man futures the RaceBrace for Rogue and gives the same benefits over the average strut brace. It is custom fit for our beloved ti’s and will be tig welded and superbly made as it is recognized that John makes some of the very best bars in the business and has loads of real world race fabrication and engineering experience, This will be a very high quality piece and very well engineered and I want to thank Darren for providing the “fit” car as without a real car to fit the precision can’t be there, it seems he may well be the production “fit” tester as well. I also want to really thank John Mason for putting up with my nagging but he did not need to as he has been eager from the start to make this bar as long as he had someone to work with, thank you John.

So here it is:
Very soon from John’s website at http://www.masonengineering.net/ the prices should be as follows:

Carbon Steel weighs 5 lbs. with Raven Black Satin Powder Coat for $250.00

Aluminum Alloy weighs 2.5lbs with Scotch Brite Brushed finish for $285.00

Shipping on either bar will be approximately $30.00 US/Canada via UPS – no FEDEX and no US Postal service - as the size of it pushes it into a minimum of 30 pounds shipping weight, though the weight in steel is 5 lbs. and aluminum will be half.

By all accounts a very good price for an extraordinary piece of hardware!!!


Now, for the great news for the group buy I will be coordinating as soon as possible. John has graciously given me the following prices and these should be solid and final prices will be given when I officially start the buy:

Minimum group buy quantity for a 10% discount and a modest shipping discount is 6 bars.

Steel $250.00 - $25.00 = $225.00 + $28.00 shipping = $253.00

Aluminum $285.00 - $28.50 = $256.50 + $28.00 shipping = $284.50


If we can get a minimum of 12 bars for the group order we will get a 15% discount:

Steel $250.00 - $37.50 = $212.50 + $28.00 shipping = $240.50

Aluminum $285.00 - $42.75 = $242.25 + $28.00 shipping = $270.25

I will get the group buy details out as soon as possible and once we meet the levels we are after I will likely collect all funds via PayPal and use the same to pay John and he will ship the individual bars as per the above restriction.

So, we have a new strut brace available to us, and a beauty it is. Once this bar is established and we have an idea of the reception of it, John has expressed that he may make available a rear brace of some sort to compliment this new front one.

Thanks,
Dave Ellsworth

[tiFreak]

cool, that's not too much, unfortunately it's more than I can spend right now since I still have plenty of other suspension work to do first, I'll definitely pick one of these up at some point though

[maverick]

Originally Posted by tiFreak

cool, that's not too much, unfortunately it's more than I can spend right now since I still have plenty of other suspension work to do first, I'll definitely pick one of these up at some point though

Great, just stay in touch and it may be a little while getting the word out and a group buy quantity, so who knows. I have looked and looked and it not only is on the cheeper side of the spectrum it is the best bar ever for our cars and I know the version that Rogue is selling is rated very highly as are all of John's products.

Dave

[roadrash]

I'm interested in one, and I know my mechanic has been looking for this sort of thing. I'll let him know to check this out.

[maverick]

Carbon Steel weighs 5 lbs. with Raven Black Satin Powder Coat for $250.00

Aluminum Alloy weighs 2.5lbs with Scotch Brite Brushed finish for $285.00

I just got the weights from John and I will shortly be getting the first production bar for final check and I will take photos and post and have the group buy with all the details in full swing by then, but the prices should be good and even at retail this is the best bar for the buck by a wide margin I think and the more we buy the better as at 12+ with 15% off this becomes a really great deal!

Dave

[roadrash]

Dave, I THOUGHT I saw mention of the possible production of a rear brace (something like the "butt strut") but can't find it now. Is there any chance that Mason Engineering would make something like that also?

This would be a good time to consider manufacturing a rear brace since everyone here has strut braces on the brain right now. :-D heh heh

[maverick]

Originally Posted by roadrash

Dave, I THOUGHT I saw mention of the possible production of a rear brace (something like the "butt strut") but can't find it now. Is there any chance that Mason Engineering would make something like that also?

This would be a good time to consider manufacturing a rear brace since everyone here has strut braces on the brain right now. :-D heh heh

Yes, John has discussed it with me and as soon as he gets a feel of how the front braces go and it is all working, he will start working on a rear setup as well. He has such bars for the E30's now and said that once you tighten up the front it is good to have a look at the back as it tends to get a bit wiggly with the front tight. So I would say they are in the works and I have some ideas about them as well, maybe a solid setup for pure track machines and a removable verison for street? I know he makes variations of the E30 bars and you can see them and all the other great work he does on his site at http://www.masonengineering.net/

Everyone interested in the group buy or maybe getting rear bars as well please contact me here or at maverick6732@live.com and I will get the buy going and pass it all on to John and see what happens about the rear bars.

Thanks,
Dave

[roadrash]

I'm interested in both, even though I don't "need" either since my car is only a daily driver. heh heh

Heck, I'll probably never even do an autocross with this particular car, but I'm feeling the urge to buy some stuff for the car and this group buy is coming along at just the right time. :-D

[maverick]

Originally Posted by Kaliimc

FYI I am one of the 5 votes so far and you can include me in a group buy.

One issue with the Mason Engineering website I had was the wording for specific products...

My wife and I have been shopping for 318TI "Compact" parts for about 2 years now and know that if a website does not say TI or Compact, we're either calling them or not purchasing the item, this kinda threw her off based on the website not excluding the TI along with the excluded M3 (my wife spoke with them and it has since been changed). Mason Eng. needs to specify our car like other sites do. 318 is not the same as 318TI, or E36 Compact, we all know this fact and need to help others, so they can help us.

Having ranted a little I want to say we still want to purchase a Mason Engineering strut tower bar over other brands since both of us actually agree on something, the design and looks of this bar.

Aloha folks,

I am sorry to hear about this, that unfortunately is a common problem with all part sites, they tend to clump them all in the same boat and the 318ti is a different fish entirely. You have learned the hard way that you have to be sure and even then depending on the actual knowledge of the person you might not get the straight story. I bought a set of rear brakes from a guy who swore they were from a 318ti and when I got them they were e36 318 brakes and I told him and all he said was, well I thought they were the same. It is the same sort of a thing I ran into with the SPARCO bar, “oh, it will fit as it fits the M42 and M44 motor cars”, well that is true if the battery is in the boot and it isn’t on a ti, that is why Bimmerworld now has a note does not fit to without battery relocation…that was because of my testing the fit.

In John’s defense I know that the ti is a fairly rare bird and that he had never seen one up close until I started speaking with him and he thought his 318 bar should fit, but did warn me it might not and that is how this all got started. I know I called him because Vorshlag who sells his bars swore to me that John’s 6-cyl bar would fit a ti, but when I called them back after talking to John it seems it may have either had an engine swap to a six or had the DA Supercharger on it which would allow it to fit. John is now aware of the differences and is developing new product accordingly, but we have to get the word out so that it is worth his while.

I will let John now if he has not already read your post what you have said here and hopefully his can be a model site for accuracy.

Thanks,
Dave

[jjmtools]

Originally Posted by Kaliimc

FYI I am one of the 5 votes so far and you can include me in a group buy.

One issue with the Mason Engineering website I had was the wording for specific products. My wife and I purchased a rear bar roughly a year ago and it did not fit our car, it ended up being for a 318 instead of TI, but when the description of the bar indicated it was for all E36 to include 318, except the M3, my wife was positive it would fit. We still have the bar because we were unable to return it. (I was deployed at this point so my wife was the sole representative for our cars). It turned out the wording on the website was not as specific as other sites, I'm sure you all know the deal with this on various websites.

My wife and I have been shopping for 318TI "Compact" parts for about 2 years now and know that if a website does not say TI or Compact, we're either calling them or not purchasing the item, this kinda threw her off based on the website not excluding the TI along with the excluded M3 (my wife spoke with them and it has since been changed). Mason Eng. needs to specify our car like other sites do. 318 is not the same as 318TI, or E36 Compact, we all know this fact and need to help others, so they can help us.

KALIMAC-my daughter and submariner husband live at base housing=PEARL HARBOR,return the bar to them and we will refund your EBAY purchase money
what your chassis is refered to is E36/5,your wife bought E36 rear bar
best regards JOHN