Re: Subframe bushings...

[JustaxPHX@aol.com]

> This is the very thing that I mentioned many times before. When solid 
> bushings and strut braices are used the shell gets trashed.

I agree with you about the solid bushings, since this is how the load gets fed
into the chassis, but in my experience, a properly designed strut brace
actually helps prevent problems, not cause them.  Of course, I'm sure this
varies from car to car, depending upon the specifica design of the bodyshell.

> In order to slow this process down one needs seem welding and roll cage that
ties together 
> subframe and other suspention pick up points. I am currently in process of 
> converting my rally car to all solid Rose bearing suspention leaving only
one 
> rubber component per corner. It is beyond most people's understanding how 
> much work is needed to prepair the shell to survive something like that.

Not mine ... doing all of the work myself, I put over 250 hours into the
preparation of my 4k shell and that was before the rollcage was installed.
Stripping the car back to bare metal, top and bottom, is a real PITA but other
than paying $1200 (or more!) to have it chemically stripped, it's the only way
to prepare it for seam welding and chassis plating.  The 4k we raced in '89
had 140k on it when we started, so the shell was already a little bit tired,
but it didn't take us long to finish it off.

Of course, I had tuned the car -- running in a "stock" class, mind you -- to
pull over 1g on R-compound tires and nobody in their right would ever want to
drive it on the street.  The rear shocks had so much rebound damping that it
took over a minute for them to return to normal ride height after you got up
from sitting on the trunk lid!  With just over .5" of toe-out up front, the
car was downright dangerous to drive at over 70mph but it *loved* to go around
corners at 20-50mph...

> big problem that I found with Audi is that subframe attachment points are 
> relatively week. I have seen toren out subframes more than I thought I would
> both in rally and in street use.

We tore up one subframe and ripped out one of the captured mounting nuts.
Believe me, it's not an easy repair if you're required to keep the car stock.
If I were rallying one of these cars, I'd spend a LOT of time addressing this
weakness...

JG