One of the easiest and best bang-for-the-buck suspension modifications to do on an E30 is a strut/stress bar install. There are many different companies that make strut bars such as BMP Design, Racing Dynamics, Ireland Engineering, Sparco, and many more. For our project car we chose to use the Sparco strut bar, which we purchased from Evosport. It's the simplest design out in the market and is constructed of steel, unlike most other strut bars which are made out of aluminum. Another thing that we liked about this particular bar is that it's a solid design that isn't hinged or adjustable design (such as BMP's bar). This gives the Sparco bar an advantage over the other bars by doing what its supposed to keep the strut towers stable. Testimony of users is that there is no bar better than the Spacro bar. It's the most popular bar in the E30 world, and it also fits the Ground-Control's front camber correction plates, which is the new favorite along with Ground-Control's coil-overs for E30 fans on tracks everywhere. Now that you know what we picked and why we picked it, lets see how the heck to put it on.

First, you need to unbolt the two bolts located closest to the engine on the top of each strut tower. Next you need to place the bar over the bolts, making sure it's going under all cables and hoses like your throttle cable and reservoir hose. Also make sure no bolts or other miscellaneous parts are in the way. (A common problem on the E30's is the breather hose nut getting in the way, simply exchange the nut with a smaller nut). After all precautions are taken, slowly drop the bar in place making sure all the bolts go through the hole on the bar.

If the bolts don't line up you could put a screw drive inside the holes and guide them on to the bolts and push down over the bolts. If the strut towers on your car are too close for the bar to fit you need to lift the both front wheels up with jack stands; by doing this you allow the strut to flex to its original factory position and let the struts settle a little bit. Now you should be able to proceed with the bar install.

Now that the bar is on you need to tighten down the bolts and measure for the third bolt. Yes, the notorious third bolt. Some of you may be scratching your heads going, "third bolt, that there be yonder on de otha darn side, de bar don't reach this a one!" Correction my friend, you need to make your own hole for the third bolt. If you look at the bar you will notice a hole on the brace that is adjacent to the side of the strut tower. You need to tighten down the bar all the way, then measure and mark the placement for this bolt. Go out to your local hardware store (or go before if you're a smart one) and get a bolt to fit the new-drilled hole. Proceed with the drilling and tighten down the third bolt. Many swear the third bolt makes the big difference when using a Sparco bar (or any other bar) so that's why we did it.

Now that you're done with this setup, you can lower your car if previously raised, and go out and test the strut bar on a closed track or road. You will love your new strut bar; with ours in place on the project car we lost a lot of the front end under-steer, and the whole car feels tighter through turns and while corners beg us for mercy.