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      10-28-2011, 08:41 PM   #1
F360C
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Rogue Engineering "Race Brace"

So I have been working with the guys at Rogue Engineering to make a set of front control arm bushings for the Z4M. While there I have fallen in love with this "Race Brace" and had to have one. I like that it was a no BS performance part, light and very strong! Not to mention it looks awesome but that just a bonus. Great so lets bolt it on! Not soo easy..
The issue is that although it looks very close to being able to fit when he put it on the my car it was no where near close. So Mason Engineering (the manufacturer of the Rogue Bars) shipped a raw e46 M3 bar for Ben to custom fit to my car. Turns out that it was a lot of work to fit but after Ben used his magic hands he was able to make it fit perfectly and it will have NO clearance issues all! No washers, no notches, no tight fit! The bar will bolt right on. So instead of just make it a one off he was convinced to make a production run of "Race Braces" for the Z4!

Here are some pics of the raw bar being prototyped on my car. The bar has been test fitted on my brothers car today to confirm fitment and has no been shipped to Mason to make the last modifications and to make the jig.








I am going to try and set up a group buy for these for the community. The non- group buy price should be very similar to the E46 bar. Let me know who would be interested.
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      10-28-2011, 08:50 PM   #2
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Count me in. I've had my eye on the Mason brace since day 1. Thx for the ground-work!

Will they be painted to match stock firewall braces? (i.e. black)
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      10-28-2011, 08:52 PM   #3
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Quote:
Originally Posted by johanness View Post
Count me in. I've had my eye on the Mason brace since day 1. Thx for the ground-work!

Will they be painted to match stock firewall braces? (i.e. black)
Yep they will be painted black to match!
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      10-28-2011, 09:00 PM   #4
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Crap on a stick! I just got my Strong Strut installed, and now this nasty piece of temptation comes along! I think I shall have a hard time NOT buying one. (Seriously, thank you for the work on this. It's appreciated!)

But, no red to match your custom valve cover colors?
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      10-28-2011, 09:14 PM   #5
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Nice, it'll be very tempting if the price is under $300
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      10-28-2011, 09:24 PM   #6
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im in
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      10-28-2011, 09:40 PM   #7
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Me too... Count me in
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      10-28-2011, 09:54 PM   #8
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Count me in!
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      10-28-2011, 10:12 PM   #9
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I could be down depending on price!
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      10-28-2011, 10:23 PM   #10
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Damn, I wonder if this fits the n52. I'd drive down to Rogue to let Ben fit on mine if he didn't already send out!
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      10-28-2011, 10:31 PM   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Dubbedown View Post
Damn, I wonder if this fits the n52. I'd drive down to Rogue to let Ben fit on mine if he didn't already send out!
Let me know what you find out! I want one for my n52!
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      10-29-2011, 12:10 AM   #12
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Quote:
Originally Posted by GomboRombo View Post
Let me know what you find out! I want one for my n52!
I'm guessing it does, I would think that the engine that would have most clearance issues is the S54. If it fits that it should fit the rest. The BMW strut brace works on all Z4s doesn't it?
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      10-29-2011, 01:13 AM   #13
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Quote:
Originally Posted by psygnosis View Post
I'm guessing it does, I would think that the engine that would have most clearance issues is the S54. If it fits that it should fit the rest. The BMW strut brace works on all Z4s doesn't it?
The positioning of the bolt holes for the endplates are the same, but the clearance for non-M motors has to do with the positioning of the oil filler cap.
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      10-29-2011, 02:19 AM   #14
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I'm in for 1, do keep me posted!!
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      10-29-2011, 02:47 AM   #15
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Count me in for now!
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      10-29-2011, 03:20 AM   #16
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Where's aerobod when you need him with his engineering skills. I'm wondering if it's really worth it to upgrade from the bmw brace to this beefier one.

It certainly looks really well made. Props for sticking with it and getting it modified for our cars
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      10-29-2011, 04:44 AM   #17
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Quote:
Originally Posted by crfine88 View Post
Count me in!
i dont think this will clear our BPV for the supercharger :-(
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      10-29-2011, 07:23 AM   #18
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Quote:
Originally Posted by psygnosis View Post
Nice, it'll be very tempting if the price is under $300
Just looked at the Mason Engineering web site. The same bar for the Z3 is $405 in steel and $455 in aluminum. Doubt this will be cheaper....

http://www.masonengineering.net/Subpages/Z3.htm
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      10-29-2011, 10:30 AM   #19
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I'm in for an Aluminum one.
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      10-29-2011, 10:46 AM   #20
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Quote:
Originally Posted by chickdr View Post
Just looked at the Mason Engineering web site. The same bar for the Z3 is $405 in steel and $455 in aluminum. Doubt this will be cheaper....
Um, the point of a GB is to be less than the advertised price. OP said "The non- group buy price should be very similar to the E46 bar."
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      10-29-2011, 11:43 AM   #21
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Quote:
Originally Posted by beta View Post
Where's aerobod when you need him with his engineering skills. I'm wondering if it's really worth it to upgrade from the bmw brace to this beefier one.

It certainly looks really well made. Props for sticking with it and getting it modified for our cars
So, a few thoughts about strut braces in general on the Z4. First, referring to the hastily sketched diagram below, there are a few structural considerations:
- A strut brace closes the triangle between the strut towers and the firewall-to-strut braces.
- Most of the problematic flex in the strut towers comes from the vertical wheel loads as the suspension is compressed due to either bumps or load transfer in cornering, this load tries to rotate the tower inwards by applying pressure to the outer point of the triangle formed by the strut, strut tower and lower control arm. The horizontal cornering loads are mainly reacted into the lower reinforcement plate, having little effect on the top of the strut tower.
- A strut brace can only really transfer loads from one strut tower to the other due to a horizontal shearing of the brace, the strut towers and the lower reinforcement. This means the added stiffness comes from making the two strut towers flex together as opposed to independently.
- In the case of the relatively thin strut brace end plates due to clearance issues, the brace can provide little resistance to bending between itself and the top of the strut tower, therefore most resistance is in the form of compressive or tension load along the brace.

Assuming a maximum state cornering situation where ther inner wheels are about to lift off the ground, the maximum load transferred into rotating the strut tower would be about 4000N (assuming about 400kg on each front wheel resolves to 800kg on the loaded wheel, 0kg on the unloaded one). As the outer lower control arm ball joint is about half the distance from the bottom of the strut as the length of the strut, this would lead to a shearing force of up to 2000N at the top of the strut tower.

This shearing force is going to be dissipated through the inner fender/frame reinforcement, triangular braces and strut brace. Assuming the elements other than the strut brace are relatively flexible (which they aren't, but we'll look at worst case), then lets take 2000N as the lateral load on the strut brace.

If we look at material properties, assume a brace length of 1m. The Rogue Engineering brace seems to weigh about 4kg for the steel version, so allow 3kg for the main brace, 1kg for the end plates (M3 brace specs). This leads to a cross-sectional area of 390mm^2. Assuming 200GPa Young's Modulus for steel and a 2000N load, we find the compression or tension in the strut at that load leads to a change of length in the strut bar of 0.026mm.

0.026mm length change is probably very small relative to the inherent flex of both strut towers, so they can effectively be seen as rigidly joined, meaning that flex of one tower can potentially be halved, due to inducing an equivalent flex in the other tower when the strut brace is in place. I would say the OEM brace would probably incur closer to a 0.05mm length change in the same circumstances, but this is still very small (leading to a camber change of about 0.006 degrees, assuming a strut length of 0.5m).

Overall I'd say the Rogue Engineering strut would look very nice especially if painted black, but would be hard pressed to see any noticeable improvement compared with the OEM one in terms of usable stiffness.
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      10-29-2011, 01:03 PM   #22
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I may be interested in this or the other numerous strut bars members will be selling once they get theirs
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