Slon Workshop E46 M3 Carbon Front Triangulating Reinforcement Kit

[Obioban]

I have the connects. I got them specifically because I wanted to play with the connect system.

The nicest thing I can say about them is that they're quiet on the street.
(Context: I'm building a house, so I go to the job site every day. My PSC2s are heat cycled out, so useless for track at this point. I'm running them as street tires until the house is built, so all the nails I pick up/plugs I get go into tires that'll be getting thrown out instead of my nice, healthy, PS4Ss.)

[Casa de Mesa]

Man I missed some lively convo, just got back from a week+ in the CO mountains, pure bliss...

I 100% agree with IamFODI's point here:

Interesting to think of penalty-free chassis stiffening and weight reduction as endgame mods. They're literally the first things I'd do on any car. 🤷♂️

When you build a racecar based on a unibody, be it a "body-in-white" or convert a street car (the point is "unibody as the base"), if the rules allow it and you have the pockets deep enough to do it, you seam weld the chassis. That's almost always the first step in building a production based racecar from a blank canvas. Then you put the best possible cage in the car that ties in key chassis points, triangulating as much as possible. That is, you maximize as many mounting points allowed by the rulebook. Then you gusset the chassis to the cage wherever possible (B-pillars to the main hoop, A-pillars to the forward hoop bars, strut tower cage bars to the chassis itself, etc.), again, if allowed by the racing series.

Leaving the safety part out of the discussion for now... that kind of chassis work is many multiples of $5k in labor alone and why rulebooks don't always allow it - seam welding, multi-point cages and certain types of gusseting are cost-prohibitive for "budget" racing series and otherwise become barriers to entry for most would-be racers. While I'm not 100% up on rulebooks, I'm thinking Spec E30, Spec Miata, Spec-whatever. Chassis stiffening via those 3 things is a *very* big competitive advantage.

Almost every single amateur racing but national level car I've seen built all start by exploiting the rulebook to the furthest extent possible with regards to chassis stiffening. Same thing for pro-cars based on production cars, but then we're talking big time money builds. My racecar isn't seam welded because I couldn't afford it when building it. It would have been north of the cost of the cage just to do the seam welding in my car, but I digress.

So what the hell is my point?

I don't think of this as an endgame mod in the slightest bit. Yes $5k is a lot for a brace. However, based on the torsional numbers Slon published and feedback from forum members deep into the "in-the-know" category who voted with their wallet, this would be a ground zero mod if I was building a non-caged M3 from scratch. I'd put this before the CF-roof and other weight-reducing mods.

I know that philosophy may not jive with a lot of the peeps here and I fully respect the counterpoint argument. Some are looking for quantitative results measured in lap times before justifying the price - I get it. Or, most will argue for a street car it doesn't make sense - I get it. But 100% of the other mods we're getting really spendy on (brakes, suspension, CSL bits, CF trunks, etc.) all build on a foundation. Personally, I want that foundation to be as good as possible.

[Casa de Mesa]

I was looking for the below video when I posted the above but couldn't find it. Great video on "why seam welding". While not a direct 1:1 comparison, the principles in this video apply to the concepts within this thread. A couple min into the vid, he talks about the key points in the car to seam weld. The first area he mentions is suspension mounting points i.e., Strut towers!!

https://youtu.be/bj7EjaSNDfw?si=xUIogM_KElVZt7X1

Listen to how many times he talks about strengthening/tying into the strut/shock towers.

[eXpensiveGears]

That would be awesome to see.

Agreed. Would love to see what the actual 3060lb CSL with the newest gen tires can take off the 7:50 time.

[Cronenberged]

I was looking for the below video when I posted the above but couldn't find it. Great video on "why seam welding". While not a direct 1:1 comparison, the principles in this video apply to the concepts within this thread. A couple min into the vid, he talks about the key points in the car to seam weld. The first area he mentions is suspension mounting points i.e., Strut towers!!

https://youtu.be/bj7EjaSNDfw?si=xUIogM_KElVZt7X1

Listen to how many times he talks about strengthening/tying into the strut/shock towers.

I got to go to the Team O'Neal school, hands down the best course I've ever taken, they have everything AWD, RWD and FWD. Definitely built my confidence on loose gravel but easily translated to road as well.

[Obioban]

Fun picture that caught my eye from Nissan's presentation on the new Z car.

2.5% gains. Awww yeah.

[Casa de Mesa]

If I'm tracking where those are located, that's actually pretty remarkable.

[9kracing]

2.5% gains. Awww yeah.

To be fair, I take SLON's claims of 20% with a massive grain of salt.

[Bry5on]

To be fair, I take SLON's claims of 20% with a massive grain of salt.

You see his dyno rig? Looks like it was setup properly to me. The only thing left would be trusting that 1) the load cells were calibrated and 2) that he’s telling the truth. Just putting that here for the record, as from an engineering perspective he’s done everything right and it’s easy for folks to misinterpret that!

[Obioban]

To be fair, I take SLON's claims of 20% with a massive grain of salt.

I disagree. They measured it over multiple chassis. I’m not sure what more you could ask for.

[IamFODI]

I disagree. They measured it over multiple chassis. I’m not sure what more you could ask for.

Impartial 3rd party verification?

[Obioban]

Impartial 3rd party verification?

I’ve never seen any shop other than Slon that cares enough to have the gear to measure torsional rigidity, so I’m not sure that’s a reasonable expectation.

[Cronenberged]

Impartial 3rd party verification?

So, what source do you need it to come from and at what percentage should it be?

[EthanolTurbo]

So, what source do you need it to come from and at what percentage should it be?

I tested it. It was actually only 19.9%. Obviously this brace is a piece of shit.

[oceansize]

It is times like these I'm glad I own a vert. It sure has saved me a lot of money since I don't need CF fenders, roofs, bumpers, strut braces, deck lids, and walls. Cause god knows I'd probably buy it all....