sebastiaan
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| posted on 17/1/12 at 06:29 PM |
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Just to follow-up on this; I've since stripped the car back a bit, ordered some additional steel tubing and plan om doing this:
It's designed to tie the two bulkheads together and use the additional strenght and stiffness to channel some of the loads into the transmission
tunnel (which I might end up triangulating as well). The "double R braces actually go down to the rear pick up points of the top wishbones as
that way they clear the alternator & manifolds and that is of course also where the loads are introduced into the chassis. Together with
triangulating the front suspension box these mods should provide a decent increase in torsional stiffness. If I wil actually notice this on the road I
do not know, but I will report back once the car is back on the road.
At the rear, there is some additional bracing going in to stiffen up the rear suspension box (where the diff sits) as this is just a square box with
no appreciable triangulation (and a couple of pre-failed tubes, LOL) as standard.
And let me stress AGAIN that the car is perfectly suited to the odd blat out on the open road, I just want to see if I can improve things a bit.
Here's hoping I don't mess it up 
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sebastiaan
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| posted on 14/5/12 at 07:09 PM |
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Right, it's been a few months....
I just took the Indy out for a first drive after the winter mods. I ended up adding just one R-brace to the passenger's side and making the top
panel for the footwell on that side structural (bonded and riveted on). Effectively, this mimicks the BEC setup for the old MK Indy chassis.
In addition, I triangulated the "suspension box" on both sides, adding diagonals from the rear mounting point of the top wishbones to the
opposite corner in the very front lower corners of the chassis. Also added a V-brace behind the rad.
And, does it drive any better?
It seems it actually does, although this is of course very subjective. It's also been quite some time since I last drove the car. But to me, it
seems like the car actually self-centres a bit better and that it is more stable over bumpy surfaces. It also seems that some of the rattles and
squeeks are gone.
In all, I'm quite happy I did these mods. To further improve the self centering, I might fit some haynes roadster top wishbones as these should
fit and increase caster by some 2 degrees.
Hope this helps for some of you....
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