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In preparation for the first stage of our upcoming suspension articles, we also received a few other key components in our order from Bavarian Autosport. Having parts lying in wait is a tough process for me, especially when they’re related to the suspension in any way. With our main suspension components en route from Hanchey Vehicle Technologies, we decided to use my impatience and excitement to get a slight jump on starting those upgrades—aside from the bushings that is, which we already covered in Part 1.

There is actually a factory-produced part which offers more to stiffen up the feel of the E36 chassis than any strut bar I’ve ever felt, and it produces a very noticeable increase in steering response and overall feel.

The brace came in the “trunk kit” supplied with the M3 LTW, along with a few other key Motorsport-supplied pieces, and was later installed from the factory as a means to tighten up the chassis on the E36 3-series convertibles.

The only hard part of installing the cross brace is the installation of the nutserts needed to bolt the brace into pre-existing holes in the subframe. Luckily for us, however, M3s delivered in the U.S. already had the nutserts installed from the factory, so this was a non-issue.
