OK, for the dozen people who had a look at the first post: I successfully installed the brace, but there did appear to be a problem with the supplied bolts. I tried to install just a bolt, to see if the issue was with the bolts themselves, and I could drive the bolt no farther without the brace in place. After removing the bolt, the last five or six threads were completely stripped. I was relieved that the factory bolt would still go in, so I completed the installation using the original, factory bolts. I have since been doing a lot of research on Torque to Yield bolts, a/k/a "stretch bolts", to see if I'm OK, safety- and structure-wise, in reusing the bolts. There's a lot of information, most of it that I've seen has been anecdotal, and it runs from, "Yeah, you can reuse them", to, "You are courting certain death if you reuse them". I was going to have to reuse them, brace or no, if I was going to drive the car to work this morning, so I sided with, "Yeah, you can reuse them". I measured the bolts from the mounting kit and sent an email to Madness; we'll see if they're the correct bolts for the application. I'm tempted to just get two new bolts from Seattle MINI and go that route. My impression of the brace is that it makes the ride just a little less smooth in general, you get more feedback about the condition of the surface, but the car handles bumps and potholes better. There's more of a sense that the suspension, rather than the whole car, is absorbing the impact. Most of what I've read about handling improvements suggest that steady-state corners, "sweepers", is where the steering and handling feel are most improved. I'll hit some onramps this weekend, and see.
------------- '02 Cooper S, Alta pulley, Alta CAI, M7 brace, Madness brace, One-ball, D1 Spec Throttle Controller, ExtremeContact DW, Koni FSD, Boot Box, Glove Box Organizer . . .
Diligentia, Vis, Celeritas
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