Re: 200q/v8 stiffness

[ScharfR@aol.com]

In a message dated 97-07-08 08:50:59 EDT, eliot@u.washington.edu (Eliot Lim)
writes:

<< the following are documented in v8 tech reference as additional steps
 taken to stiffen up the v8: 
 
   (snip)
 
 - dash brace (this is a huge slab of aluminum that sits beneath the
 dash running across the A pillars.  you'll have to see the diagrams
 to believe it! >>

Even cooler is the fact that this piece is actually made of cast magnesium.
 It was, at the time, one of the largest and most complex pieces of cast
magnesium in an automotive appilcation.  If I recall, it won some kind of
award from "Modern Metals" magazine (a trade publication) due to the novelty
of the application.  Compared to the traditional use of sheetmetal stampings
in this area, the V8's magnesium casting consolidated a large number of
individual parts, saved a lot of weight, was dimensionally more accurate, had
an aggregate lower cost, _and_ stiffened the structure.  Vorsprung durch
Technik.