BMR CB006 review!!

[EVIL-PUNKIN]

Hey guys, I just want to give a huge shoutout to Kelly and the guys over at BMR for making some kick-ass parts with beyond amazing craftsmanship and customer service! As some of you may know I was the winner of the CB006 giveaway and it's taken me a little while to get the brace on the car but it's finally on there and I thought I would give my honest review of it for you guys who may be interested!

We'll start with quality, this things is beautiful! The powder coating was the first thing I noticed, it's as slick as glass and extremely thick, much much nicer than I've saw on some suspension parts from other companies I've purchased from in the past! There were absolutely no bare sports even in the tightest nooks and crannies it was just as thick as everywhere else. The welds were also very good quality and you could tell they were expertly done and strong and will definitely stand up to any abuse you could throw at it! Overall this is a very well made piece and you'll be hard pressed to find anything nicer anywhere!

The install was about as straight forward as possible, and shouldn't take anyone any longer than maybe an hour with pretty basic hand tools. The only problem I ran into wasn't with the brace itself or anything related to BMR but was a problem that Ford itself created. You have to insert bushings into the front k-member "legs" that bolt onto the body to prevent it from crushing to rectangular tubing and evidently when Ford put the holes in the tubing they just pressed the holes and in my case the "slugs" from when they pressed the holes didn't come out but actually stayed inside the tubing still connected on one corner of the tab/slug. This was easily fixed by bending them back and forth with a screwdriver through the existing holes and fishing them out afterwards, just a extra added step you may run into! Other than that, you won't find a much easier suspension mod to install that this!

My post-install impressions are the car actually does feel overall "stiffer" in the front and more planted around turns. I don't auto cross my car or anything like that but I do run it fairly hard on these curvy SW Virginia roads and I can definitely tell a difference in the handling characteristics of the car! Overalls, for the money, I think it's definitely more than worthwhile for improving the handling of your car and I would without a doubt recommend it to anyone!

Again, thanks to everyone involved in the giveaway and thank you Kelly and everyone at BMR for the awesome customer service and help you give everyone on this forum!! God bless!!!

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[Doctor Fishtail]

Nice review! Nice piece. On my list.

 

[EVIL-PUNKIN]

I really appreciate it man! It's my first review so I was hoping I did a halfway decent job! Haha

 

[Gibbo205]

HI there


Well today was more about removing a part to fix well a design floor with that part and replacing the part with a far better engineered unit.


As such I present you the Steeda G-Trac brace that has a floor in the design:

The brace itself does the job as advertised and well, but the design floor is the fact it reduces ground clearance by 1" on the car, which on lowered cars particular ones on Steeda Ultralite or Eibach Sportline can be an issue. For me I was scraping on taller speed bumps and even worse the car was stopped dead entering a business park that had metal runner sticking out the ground, thankfully I was going under 5mph so more a scare than any real damage.

In the below image you can see the reduced ground clearance and where the part has being catching:

You can even see how its bent/enlarged the opening in the subframe.
The reason I went with Steeda G-Trac brace is because at the time it was the only brace on the market.












Now I present you BMR's CB006:

The quality of this kit is in a completely different league to the Steeda, the thought and engineering that has gone into this part is above and beyond. Kelly at BMR should be over the moon with what they have achieved. Even the bolts, washers and spacers are a lot more beefier and chunky, the only downside is it is a little heavier. But the quality and finish are vastly superior.

Some pictures of BMR CB006 on the car:

In the above photo you can see the BMR has no clearance issues at all because it does not bolt into the subframe, it in fact connects to the front lower control arm bolts, so not only do you get more clearance and a better quality unit it is also more functional.

When we originally fitted the Steeda it was relatively easy but a little fiddly as things did not line up perfectly, whereas the BMR unit was like a factory piece, everything lined up. Infact it was so easy we had removed the Steeda and fitted the BMR in less than one hour.


I cannot tell you if car feels different, it has not being driven far, what I can tell you is I have piece of mind now regarding speed bumps and clearance issues and can rest that my subframe won't take any further damage.

The Steeda unit is good, but I would not recommend it on cars lowered more than 1" due to clearance issues, this part is now for sale to a good home.

 

[Doctor Fishtail]

HI there


Well today was more about removing a part to fix well a design floor with that part and replacing the part with a far better engineered unit.


As such I present you the Steeda G-Trac brace that has a floor in the design:

The brace itself does the job as advertised and well, but the design floor is the fact it reduces ground clearance by 1" on the car, which on lowered cars particular ones on Steeda Ultralite or Eibach Sportline can be an issue. For me I was scraping on taller speed bumps and even worse the car was stopped dead entering a business park that had metal runner sticking out the ground, thankfully I was going under 5mph so more a scare than any real damage.

In the below image you can see the reduced ground clearance and where the part has being catching:

You can even see how its bent/enlarged the opening in the subframe.
The reason I went with Steeda G-Trac brace is because at the time it was the only brace on the market.












Now I present you BMR's CB006:

The quality of this kit is in a completely different league to the Steeda, the thought and engineering that has gone into this part is above and beyond. Kelly at BMR should be over the moon with what they have achieved. Even the bolts, washers and spacers are a lot more beefier and chunky, the only downside is it is a little heavier. But the quality and finish are vastly superior.

Some pictures of BMR CB006 on the car:

In the above photo you can see the BMR has no clearance issues at all because it does not bolt into the subframe, it in fact connects to the front lower control arm bolts, so not only do you get more clearance and a better quality unit it is also more functional.

When we originally fitted the Steeda it was relatively easy but a little fiddly as things did not line up perfectly, whereas the BMR unit was like a factory piece, everything lined up. Infact it was so easy we had removed the Steeda and fitted the BMR in less than one hour.


I cannot tell you if car feels different, it has not being driven far, what I can tell you is I have piece of mind now regarding speed bumps and clearance issues and can rest that my subframe won't take any further damage.

The Steeda unit is good, but I would not recommend it on cars lowered more than 1" due to clearance issues, this part is now for sale to a good home.

When comparing the Steeda hardware to the BMR hardware there is no comparison. When I first started looking at BMR I thought "I thought ok no big deal just another suspension company" But they seem to hit home runs again and again and again. As for the competition well.......they are just another suspension company. Thanks for write up Gibbo.

 

[BmacIL]

Looks like it belongs on the car as an OEM piece, really.

 

[Rebellion]

Looks like it belongs on the car as an OEM piece, really.

Certainly it does, along with proper vertical links, upper K-brace, and cradle lockout brace.

I told my source in Ford that this stuff should come like this in factory and that people shouldn't need to be purchasing braces, which in my opinion are essential. All he had to say was "I agree with you, but this is called cutting costs, and is my job to do so."

 

[BmacIL]

Certainly it does, along with proper vertical links, upper K-brace, and cradle lockout brace.

I told my source in Ford that this stuff should come like this in factory and that people shouldn't need to be purchasing braces, which in my opinion are essential. All he had to say was "I agree with you, but this is called cutting costs, and is my job to do so."

My source (in vehicle dynamics of all places) says they couldn't tighten up the rear subframe because of NVH concerns and the tolerances are loose for FRAP's build process and capability. They are working on that so they can improve. I guess they tried the GT350 subframe bushings on the base car and it was deemed too high on their subjective and objective measures for NVH. They do it for the Shelby because performance takes a priority. I told him that 100% of the people who have installed the lockout kit and reviewed on this forum have said zero perceptible NVH increase.

The front brace will improve handling at the expense of perceived ride quality (more of the road input into the chassis, even if not harsh). For most of us it's worth the trade-off.

 

[BMR Tech]

Wow guys. Thanks for the words. Seriously.

It seems as if people are starting to see what sets us apart from the rest, and that makes me happy.

 

[Rebellion]

My source (in vehicle dynamics of all places) says they couldn't tighten up the rear subframe because of NVH concerns and the tolerances are loose for FRAP's build process and capability. They are working on that so they can improve. I guess they tried the GT350 subframe bushings on the base car and it was deemed too high on their subjective and objective measures for NVH. They do it for the Shelby because performance takes a priority. I told him that 100% of the people who have installed the lockout kit and reviewed on this forum have said zero perceptible NVH increase.

The front brace will improve handling at the expense of perceived ride quality (more of the road input into the chassis, even if not harsh). For most of us it's worth the trade-off.

Cool, my source works on chassis (not directly involved with the s550) and on another conversation he said something similar, that NVH is a "huge concern" in Ford. he even advised me against changing all the bushings, just to brace up and change the dynamic parts (dampers first, then springs, sways last).

BTW, later on the day I'll PM you on the GT350 suspension project.

 

[Mustang_Lou]

Another Thanks from me for Gibbo on a constructive post ... too many people are afraid to point out the negatives on mods. I didn't even know about the clearance issue and was considering a brace.

 

[Bluemustang]

This looks really cool. I may look into this in the future.

 

[Bankss550]

I had considered purchasing this when I tackle all my suspension mods next year. After a review on both the Steeda and the BMR braces, I'm definitely getting the BMR brace. Also just to clarify, the only headers that don't work are Kooks correct?

 

[DivineStrike]

HI there


Well today was more about removing a part to fix well a design floor with that part and replacing the part with a far better engineered unit.


As such I present you the Steeda G-Trac brace that has a floor in the design:

The brace itself does the job as advertised and well, but the design floor is the fact it reduces ground clearance by 1" on the car, which on lowered cars particular ones on Steeda Ultralite or Eibach Sportline can be an issue. For me I was scraping on taller speed bumps and even worse the car was stopped dead entering a business park that had metal runner sticking out the ground, thankfully I was going under 5mph so more a scare than any real damage.

In the below image you can see the reduced ground clearance and where the part has being catching:

You can even see how its bent/enlarged the opening in the subframe.
The reason I went with Steeda G-Trac brace is because at the time it was the only brace on the market.












Now I present you BMR's CB006:

The quality of this kit is in a completely different league to the Steeda, the thought and engineering that has gone into this part is above and beyond. Kelly at BMR should be over the moon with what they have achieved. Even the bolts, washers and spacers are a lot more beefier and chunky, the only downside is it is a little heavier. But the quality and finish are vastly superior.

Some pictures of BMR CB006 on the car:

In the above photo you can see the BMR has no clearance issues at all because it does not bolt into the subframe, it in fact connects to the front lower control arm bolts, so not only do you get more clearance and a better quality unit it is also more functional.

When we originally fitted the Steeda it was relatively easy but a little fiddly as things did not line up perfectly, whereas the BMR unit was like a factory piece, everything lined up. Infact it was so easy we had removed the Steeda and fitted the BMR in less than one hour.


I cannot tell you if car feels different, it has not being driven far, what I can tell you is I have piece of mind now regarding speed bumps and clearance issues and can rest that my subframe won't take any further damage.

The Steeda unit is good, but I would not recommend it on cars lowered more than 1" due to clearance issues, this part is now for sale to a good home.

Nice review, but I'm more impressed with the fact your autocorrect keeps correcting "flaw" as "floor" every...single...time :lol:

 

[BMR Tech]

I had considered purchasing this when I tackle all my suspension mods next year. After a review on both the Steeda and the BMR braces, I'm definitely getting the BMR brace. Also just to clarify, the only headers that don't work are Kooks correct?

You will love it! And correct, the only headers I have seen any fitment issues with are the Kooks LT headers. For those, I recommend the CB007.

Nice review, but I'm more impressed with the fact your autocorrect keeps correcting "flaw" as "floor" every...single...time :lol:

I am more impressed by his fancy air intake mods. Oh and, those nice scars the previous brace left on his subframe. :headbonk:

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