WBM346Z Build Journal

Today the Supersprint Exhaust arrived all boxed up and new. Even though I won't be installing this for some time I was too excited so I unboxed everything to have a look. I didn't go as far as removing the shrink-wrap packaging as this will protect the individual pieces enough until it comes time to install. Unfortunately the Sports Muffler had sustained some minor damage in transport. You can see one of the hangers on the left hand side of the below photo has been bent inwards. I emailed Best Exhaust and sent them the photos of the issue. They spoke to Supersprint in Italy about it directly and they advised that my warranty would not be voided if I chose to remediate the damage myself (ie bend it back to shape). So rather then go through the painful process of some kind of warranty claim or replacement I opted to just remedy the situation myself. At least I have it in writing that my product warranty will still be honored now if something happens to that hanger

Another upgrade I started looking at was Sway Bars. The stock ones on my car were pretty rusted so it seemed like a good enough excuse to look around at other options.  I am not much of a CSL fan boy and cannot bring myself to pay the premium for CSL parts under the guise of staying stock or true to BMW so I figured I could find a better candidate in this list of aftermarket options: KW Suspension Ground Control Hotchkis Turner Motorsport H&R Eibach The first candidate I looked at was the KW Suspension Sway Bars under the premise that they may be designed to compliment the KW Clubsport suspension I had purchased. After a bit of research it doesn't seem like they were specifically designed to compliment their own systems directly and the size of the bars was more or less on par with the CSL spec bars. The next ones I looked at were the Hotchkis sway bars. These were appealing as the front bar is hollow which would reduce weight. Although after reading a few reviews

As part of my reinforcement at the rear of the car I decided I wanted to investigate a Rear Strut Brace. Initially I wanted something that would tie-in as part of my Rear Axle Carrier Panel Reinforcement (to complement the Redish Motorsport RACP Reinforcement plates) so I was drawn in by the Mason Engineering GTR Brace. Unfortunately after referring to the Targa Australia Regulations I found this clause: M 30. S us p ension ii.      T he a dd i t i o n of b r a c es fo r s tr u t / d a mp e r t ow e r s is p e r m i tt e d , p r ov i d e d the y are o n ly co nne c t e d t o ea c h t ow e r , an d are n o t co nne c t e d at an y o t he r po in t of the c hassis o r bodywo r k . A tt a c h m en t of s uc h a b r a c e mu s t b e by bol t s. T he d esi g n of the b r a c e is o t he r w ise f r ee. As a result I was not going to be able to run a brace which triangulated from the strut towers down to the Rear Axle Carrier Panel (RACP).