Re: Re; Upper and lower stress bars

["I.Mannix" <mannix@privatei.com>]

>I heard the exact same story from a Rabbit owner with the same autotech
>bars up
>front. He smacked a curb doing 45mph or so and other than the shreaded tire,
>suspension pieces and wheel being bent, his chassis was unaffected.

Right.  I wound up in a curb on snowy roads recently, bent both right side
wheels, but did no apparent damage to the frame.  Car still aligns well,
seems that lower stressbars are good.  (short version of a long story - I
was turning left at a green light, someone was skidding through a red light
toward my driver's side, I grabbed the ebrake, slid the car...........right
into the curb.  He grazed my bumper as it was, so no complaints.....I
guess.  Ticked me off.)

>
>
>>I Use the Autotech upper bar for two reasons: the center span can be easily
>>removed. This makes engine maint a lot easier. Second, the aluminum
>>polishes so easily when showing your car. The other upper bars are of a
>>fixed length. My friend who has autox'd and road raced, likes the Autotech
>>because of the adjustability. He can really tighten the chassis if needed.
>
>So he was preloading the bottom or the top of the chassis? Interesting but I
>wonder how much it will also change the allignment? This is some interesting
>suspension ideas! Mr. Mannix, you given this any thought?

Yeah.  I am sure that tightening an adjustable upper stressbar would
increase neg. camber.  I took my upper Nspeed bar off my car once during
funruns - times stayed about the same, but feel suffered drastically.
That's about it, really - I am not sure that prestressing the chassis is
such a good idea, though - limiting movement is, but I'm not so sure that
I'd consider an upper stressbar an adjustment.  Limiting flex in the front
uprights has to be good, but inducing it, THEN limiting it......hmm, can't
see WHY it'd be bad, but I can't see why it'd be good, either.  Moving the
shock tops in might negate the caster you have, too, but that's splitting a
*VERY* small hair.  How much n.camber?  Dunno, .25 degree?  Maybe?  Not a
whole lot.  I do agree that an upper bar makes the car feel better.  On a
camber-challenged car, it might be worth it, but since (from an autocross
view) you're in DSP anyway, you can use crash bolts....then, why prestress
the chassis?  Does an upper bar make the car *faster*?  I don't think so,
really.  Not a whole lot.  THE CAR.  I believe that the absence of an upper
bar won't slow it down much, BUT......having it will make it feel better,
so you can drive it faster.  (not *you* Shawn, the hypothetical you:).  The
day I took it off, I had done 4 competition runs with it, 2 without it, 1
more with it on hot tires at the right pressure - runs 4-7 were all VERY
similar.  Feel was better.  Now, if I'd had it off for competition runs,
and left it off til my 7th, the 7th might have been fastest.  Speculating.
Not by much, maybe .2 of a second.   The added stability lets you drive to
the car's/your limit quicker, so I think it is a worthwhile upgrade, but
IMHO, it won't win you a race.  I guess I have given it a bit of thought;).



Mannix (really starting to like this list a lot more......)


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