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Originally Posted by race-rodz
rocker/floor mods?SFC's: A+
rollbar: C-, (green drawing)the side "x" braces are useless, as they are "dead tube" connections. meaning, if there is no joint or bend for the tube to intersect, then it does ALMOST nothing. in the red drawing the "x's" meet at joints and is acceptable, however "most" of the other bracing is redundant and not needed. the "roof" bars in the last pic that mimic a "T" top and tie back to the A-pillars bothers me, because, welding the min thickness .120 wall tube to sheetmetal is pointless. i do like the structural foam, because it is minimal added weight, and it add to the rigidity.
BUT
i would work towards getting rid of all the chassis deflection BEFORE adding a cage. IMO, adding the cage is "cheating" if your are trying to "improve the chassis to the point where it will be comparable to the finest production vehicles produced today." as i dont recall seeing an actual production vehicle with a "real" roll cage. i think the cage should be added as a safety measure AFTER the chassis reworking has been done.
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Hi RR,
Thanks for the input.
I agree with everything you posted. 100%. Well... maybe 95%
The overall chassis modifications will be evaluated before the roll bar is added. The roll bar is only being installed as a safety measure to satisfy certain sanctioning bodies. We are expecting 1/4 mile times to be somewhere in the 10's and we don't want to be kicked off the course because we are sans roll bar.
But, just because it is mainly a safety item, does not mean that we are not going to use it to our advantage. It’s main function will be to tie together and reinforce the rear suspension mounting points and reduce flex in this area of the chassis.
The roll bar is being modified from the original sketches. Yes we are eliminating the scissor truss from the sides of the cage. After mocking things up, we felt it was a bit of over kill. But, I will argue the benefits of this type of design. There are two major benefits of this type of truss. First it is almost as effective (at maintaining the distance between two points) as a straight pipe between the bottom legs of the roll bar. Also, it reinforces the major legs by reducing their unsupported span by 50%.
Today we work on the firewall / cowl reinforcements. When these are complete, we will test and see just how far these modifications have taken us.