chassis re-enforcement v.101

[sfwilliams@comcast.net (Scott F. Williams)]

> I was planning on have tube run all around the engine bay, and then back
> through the firewall all the way to tie into the rear strut towers, it
> wasn't going to be a full cage since its a street car, it was just purely
> for re-enforcement.

Lemme get this straight. You want to run tubes from the crush zones to the
front of the strut towers and then from the strut towers back to the
firewall? Is that the plan? Keep in mind that in an impact you won't have
much of any crush zone. Also, you'll transmit the force directly into the
firewall which will probably distort the unibody more than if you left the
crush zone unmodified. I'd only do this if you had a sturdy cage to anchor
this all to behind the firewall. That's my intuition at work, though, not
the result of any vector analysis, etc.

> Would it just be more practical to just run the tube in the
> engine bay area,
> tie down the front strut towers, and let it go at that? Or would that just
> make it so that car from the firewall forward would leave the rest behind?

Your chassis will break at the weakest point. Strengthening everythign in
front of the strut towers will promote cracking and flex at the firewall.
Bad. What you should do is speak with an experienced cage fabricator who has
stress analysis capability and mechanical engineering expertise. Chassis
reinforcement is serious business. Stronger ain't always better.

Why not just run the usual stress bars, the vaporware rad support brace, and
install a rollbar? Some seam welding in strategic locations is also a great
idea.
--
Scott F. Williams
NJ Scirocco nut
'99 Subaru Impreza 2.5 RS
Mazda 323 GTX turbo "assaulted" vehicle
Golf GTI 16v "rollycar"
ClubVAC: "Roads found. Drivers wanted."