Front crossmember stress bar

[nealtovsen@yahoo.com (Neal Tovsen)]

> As for the V, its very shallow...and with the square tubing at 45 degrees, 
> its like having a double V.  I have a feeling people are 
> underestimating the strength of the square tubing.

While I have little engineering background, I am inclined to agree here.
The sheet metal that makes up the crossmember is a) SHEET metal and b)
VERY THIN. Obviously, it does indeed support a lot of weight, but a good
stout piece of tubing (or square tubing) should be able to replicate
that strength. Is Eric's tubing "stout enough"? I dunno, but I don't
think we have to make something as large volume-wise as the crossmember
to take some of the load off the crossmember. 

And remember, we're trying to take SOME load off the crossmember, in
order to increase the overall load-bearing capabilities of whatever the
front motor mount attaches to. It is not necessary to take all the load
off of it.


> Exactly...our design is not just for the Scirocco list, its for all A1 
> chassis, and to be able to make a bar that bolts up, and fits all A1,
> alot of design considerations had to be taken into account.  
> Not alot of people have the money, time or patience to weld plates 
> or replace crossmembers entirely on thier car, but an effective 
> bolt on stress bar...yes, that is "marketable".

And even if I did have time/money/patience for welding, it would make my
car useless to me. I need to be able to remove the support to be legal
for SCCA events. I realize I'm one of only a few people with that
restriction and I was intending to build my own bar with the assumption
that nobody else would. But now it appears we might have three choices.
Horray!

Neal