4 replies to this topic

[yabloko]

Hi to y'all, I've recently purchased '87 civic hatch.

I'm not a complete noob in amateur racing and I even did some custom strut bars for eudm 5d '95 civic I took out for racing last season.

but this years regulation of a series I'm into prohibit any additional metal welded to chassis and as you know there is no way to install rear strut w/o one.

so I decided to redo factory welds, no hardcore like rollcage etc. currently I'm trying to understand on which ones to focus on. apart from obvious like near strut towers at both front and back what needs attention?

in for advises.

[thugkitty]

I think that's all you would need to do, these civics are so light I think you could race it with little to no mods.


Love and light

[anjin]

Thinking sideways, how about bolting reinforcements to the chassis.  If allowed, look at the stramen chassis reinforcements along the door sill and across the front floor.

 

For the front suspension, remember most of the load is taken down low in the subframe.  The rest of the shell only has to hold the top of the struts, so bolt on braces there can do what you want.  There are also the fender braces - refer to the kakabox build index.

[yabloko]

 

refer to the kakabox build index.

 

that thread if one of my inspiration sources )

 

bolt-ons are allowed but rear strut tower do not have top sprint *cup* so apart from shock rod sticking out of the bushings )

drilling chassis to get additional mounting points is not allowed (regulations are not that strict but I dont want to go slippery way and risk to be moved to upper class )))

 

front strut bar - definitely yes

x-bar bolted to upper front and rear lower safety belt mounts - yes

 

apart from suspension mounting points I plan to redo welds on door portals and side sills (used translator, is this the right name for the floor element at both sides of a car? you know it rusts often ))))

car seems to be a little weak as when I jack it up a tight door latch begins to drag (

[anjin]

Don't know if a rear strut bar would actually do much.  The axle which has your tyre patch to the road attached only contacts the body in five places - the arm mounts to the bottom of the panel behind the seats, the panhard rod mount, and the struts to the top of the wheel well.  A brace across the latter doesn't seem to be able to do much when the axle itself is so disconnected from the brace; but I've been wrong before.

 

Sill is correct.  I put a 1 inch square section along where the sill and the floor meet, outside the body. That was a stramen reinforcement idea, which I adopted. Matched that with sloping bars from a roll hoop behind the seats to where the square section ended.  Does a very nice job, but would be outside your limits.

 

Thinking well outside the normal, you might get close to that reinfarcement by going from the seat belt points to the bottom of the A pillar without drilling holes etc; and from the anchorage points in the body for the front subframe to the mount points for the rear axle swing arms.  I don't think it would be quite worth it as the stiffening being point to point would need other components to get triangulation and stiffneess - but worth a think about and it might throw up something else.