RE: chassis stiffener - Series 4 Spider

["Glenn Wasserman" <glennwa@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Well hang on now - when you say legal for SCCA autocross, what do you
mean? There are classes for everything, from go-karts to motorized
barstools.

The stiffener is not legal for the stock classes, but would be surely be
allowed in the Modified classes. I'm not sure about Street Prepared -
maybe someone more knowledgeable than I could answer to that.

I think to be truly competitive in an autocross, a Spider equipped with
the stiffener would need a host of other mods since it would be in
either Street Prepared or Modified.

-----Original Message-----
From: Bernie Bennett [mailto:bennetts77833@domain.elided]
Sent: Tuesday, April 01, 2003 2:22 AM
To: J. Hutson Hart
Cc: AlfaNeely@domain.elided; Alfa Digest

Hutson:

Your comments make me wonder what penalty if any various sanctioning
bodies including AROC USA award for adding a chassis stiffener to the
spider?  Just jumped to the USA AROC web site
http://aroc-usa.org/comp1.html where making a quick reading of the code
I conclude it ignores the effect chassis stiffening might have.

Whilst searching for Russ Neely's address to ask him about the
Competition Code I came across this posted very recently

>      My personal, not at all humble, opinion is that chassis
stiffeners are
>not legal in SCCA autocross nor in Improved Touring.  For that reason,
I have
>never bought one.  My 84 ITB spider race car has a very nice chassis
>stiffener that goes from the top of the firewall over my head into the
trunk
>behind the shock towers.  I normally call it a roll cage rather than a
>chassis stiffener...
>
As you can see, the Competition  Director of AROC USA did not mention
the stiffener's legality in that venue.


>  With the
>chassis stiffener though, the difference in character on the track was
>rather more dramatic than the difference on the road.  I found the
handling
>still to be completely neutral, but with noticeably higher limits on
what I
>could both carry into turns and how soon I could dial back in the
power.  I
>experienced something akin to a tangible feel of the tires and the
adhesion
>limits right there the whole time.  I honestly found myself
contemplating a
>set of track wheels and stickier tires for next time, since I think I
could
>finally take some advantage of more grip, because the behavior at and
beyond
>the limit was so predictable and solid as to instill real confidence.
A
>complete blast was had by all!
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