Re: stiffening spiders

[Chris.Prael@domain.elided (Chris Prael)]

> From: Jack Nasielski <jackn@domain.elided>
> 
> There must be a few people who have tried the spider chassis stiffener.
> Please share your experiences.  Did you install it yourself?  Who
> supplies these things? (I saw one in the centerline book for $425).
> 
> thanks-
> jack

I have never tried one of these, nor would I!  They are a shuck.

If you much about structures, it should be obvious that any "bolt-on"
device will add a lot of weight and do very little stiffening.  

It is simply a matter of leverage.  Alfa already built extra weight
into the floor of the 105/115 chassis to stiffen the Spider.  Any
structure that you bolt to the floor pan will have an even worse
strength-to-weight ratio.  

You can produce a useful improvement in torsional stiffness by careful
design of a roll cage that is welded to the car. But the car will be a 
single seat race car, not a street machine.

These chassis stiffeners probably make great ballast, but that will not
improve the car's performance.

Chris Prael

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