Front sub frame reinforcement
When speaking about tire clearance, this design is the best I have seen so far. I personally am not a fan of doing any welding along the length of a piece of tube...just dont like the look. However, as mentioned above my post, if this tube continued towards the front and came to dead end into the front frame, I think it would be an excellent piece. I may have to get my tubing bender out and start playing. :)
As for the front flex...I noticed it in a very non-scientific way just yesterday. Was mocking things up for my strut rods, and jacked the car up. I placed stands under the front frame rails, just in front of the torsion bar crossmember. As I let the jack down, I thought I had misplaced the stands, because the front of the car just kept going down. So...I double checked the stands then did it again. It was simply the front subframe flexing. It was amazing. It had to have dropped at least 2-3" after the jack stands were making contact.
If you think about it...the entire front end on these cars is just "along for the ride". There is no reinforcing or "tieing in" anywhere. The front clip simply holds the engine, and all other bolt on components. Nothing at all ties this complete front subframe to anything...except the thin sheetmetal. Definitely need to come up with something that fixes this...I'll keep ideas floating around as well. Hopefully we can all come up with a collaborative idea.
Marty,
was following this thread closely as when lifting my s on rotisorary I noticed the flex where you have indicated. Belive it or not it severly reduced once chassis connectors were installed but still apparent. Check out my take on the XV ones. I dont like how the XV ones protrude into the wheel section, I think this style would still offer the support you are after. It picks up the double skin section on firewall and you would run a good bead along the top of the shock tower. Just need to see what the engineer says about them..
When speaking about tire clearance, this design is the best I have seen so far. I personally am not a fan of doing any welding along the length of a piece of tube...just dont like the look. However, as mentioned above my post, if this tube continued towards the front and came to dead end into the front frame, I think it would be an excellent piece. I may have to get my tubing bender out and start playing. :)
As for the front flex...I noticed it in a very non-scientific way just yesterday. Was mocking things up for my strut rods, and jacked the car up. I placed stands under the front frame rails, just in front of the torsion bar crossmember. As I let the jack down, I thought I had misplaced the stands, because the front of the car just kept going down. So...I double checked the stands then did it again. It was simply the front subframe flexing. It was amazing. It had to have dropped at least 2-3" after the jack stands were making contact.
If you think about it...the entire front end on these cars is just "along for the ride". There is no reinforcing or "tieing in" anywhere. The front clip simply holds the engine, and all other bolt on components. Nothing at all ties this complete front subframe to anything...except the thin sheetmetal. Definitely need to come up with something that fixes this...I'll keep ideas floating around as well. Hopefully we can all come up with a collaborative idea.