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05-20-2018, 01:09 PM | #1 |
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ALL Ultra Racing Chassis bars review.
Hello all. First post. I recently purchased ALL three of the Ultra racing Braces for my car as they have a 20% off memorial day sale. I don't see anyone really taking about these braces so I thought I might give some insight in them once they arrive for others to consider them. It's a stock 2008 135i manual with 35k miles on it.
I've had great luck with braces on my previous car (R53) and am looking forward to trying these out when they ship out. https://ultraracing-usa.com/product/...0tt-2004-2013/ Thanks for reading. (Update with review) Okidoki. Here are my initial thoughts. Shipping and appearance: I received all braces wrapped together with ALOT of plastic and paper. Each bar has their own serial number for the lifetime warranty registration and to make sure it's not an imitation product. These bars were made to order and took about a week and a half to arrive. Opening up those bars from that packaging was a nightmare. It took literally an hour for me as I did not want to scratch the powdercoat. Once unraveled I found a few nics and scratches but nothing of too much concern. Installation: Dirt easy if you have the appropriate tools. The center triangular brace is the easiest to install as you just need to undo the four torx screws and two rear bolts of the factory brace and swap them out. The rear subframe Brace is a little trickier as I needed to support the subframe while installing. Now the front brace fits great....until you go back to put on the under tray. You're going to need to modify it a bit to sit flush. It can still be mounted securely but the rear will be bent down a bit at the corners. The braces themselves fit great and are reasonably light. The triangular brace is roughly the same weight as the stock piece but with that extra lateral bar in place. Driving feel: I did notice some differences. The ride is somewhat smoother and more solid. Especially when going over railroad tracks, I also felt the added stiffness when exiting the parking lot ramp at an angle. With the body stiffened up the suspension could do its job more properly. I also feel the car has a bit more confidence when accelerating through a long corner. Such as an on ramp. The deflection in the body that was there before is now going to the OEM bushings. Which is a good and bad thing. Switching to poly or spherical bushings will definitely help. Do I recommend these braces? It depends.... For the price you pay and the product you receive I have no complaints. The welds are good and the bars feel solid on the car. These are a good value for money. HOWEVER...... I have a feeling these bars (mostly the front and rear subframe ones) will be much more effective if the vehicle has stiffer bushings installed throughout the suspension and drive train. Since the body deflection has reduced all of that twisting motion will go to the weakest link. The soft stock bushings. Fix that and you're golden. Over all I am happy with these braces. Last edited by Onebunchmin; 05-02-2021 at 12:23 PM.. |
05-21-2018, 12:59 PM | #2 |
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Interesting products, I look forward to the review...
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(SOLD) 2009 BMW 128i 6-Speed Coupé | Monaco Blue with Black Sensatec | chris_flies' 128i thread |
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05-21-2018, 09:08 PM | #3 |
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07-30-2018, 10:28 AM | #8 |
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Unfortunately that probably won't happen any time soon.
Last edited by Onebunchmin; 05-02-2021 at 12:24 PM.. |
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07-31-2018, 03:13 PM | #9 |
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Lol which is odd because this seems quite unnecessary for a street car. Hopefully some track rat picks one up
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08-12-2018, 10:45 PM | #11 |
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Ultra Racing is an outfit from Malaysia, been around for many years....their first manufacturing plant if you could even call it that was just an industrial warehouse with a pipe bender.
Years ago they expanded but I really do not believe they are highly engineered products. At one point, they had a E60 Show car. It had a wide body kit on it, instead of doing the proper transformation, they simply added in 5inch wheel spacers. For me when you see things like this from a manufacture that claims to be producing performance products, it rings alarm bells. If you go into YouTube, you will see videos by them promoting got ARBs and chassis stiffeners will improve the ride quality of your car to the point where it any sense of educated judgement is out of the window. Just my 2 cents. |
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08-12-2018, 11:09 PM | #12 | |
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Quote:
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08-31-2018, 09:27 AM | #13 |
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I'm surprised how well they fit and that's great news for you. I stopped looking at them when another respected forum member had bought these for his 128i and said they fit so poorly he simply threw em in the garbage.
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08-31-2018, 09:34 AM | #14 |
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There's alot of fakes going around. I bought these from the Ultra racing USA site. They were made to order. These fit on the car with no issues apart from the front splash sheild. They are solid on the body and a good price. Made even better if there's a sale going on.
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