Anyone tried making a engine bay strut brace?

[Oldbones]

I have a early spyder pre brace across the top of the door. I am wondering if a strut brace between the strut tops across the engine bay may improve the handling and reduce the stresses on the body shell of the old girl. Has anyone looked into this and found a solution. Does anyone have any photos of one fitted

Thanks
John

[peteracs]

Hi John

If I remember correctly there was a previous thread (cannot find it for the moment) which discussed this. One from France which is still supplied was shown, but looked very crude, also another home made one by the colonel was shown. Cannot remember how much real world improvement it made, but with your car I would expect not having the window top braces has a significant impact on its stiffness, though would not suggest changing it due to the S1 cars being super rare.

Peter

[lanciamad]

Took some finding..... http://www.betaboyz.myzen.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=1849.msg11542#msg11542
Marcus.

[Oldbones]

I couldn't change for another and I believe she is the earliest spyder in uk

[rossocorsa]

Interesting question about strut braces, seems obvious that it must be an improvement but someone told me that sometimes the increase in stiffness at one point can be counter productive as it can have the effect of shifting the stresses to other parts of the bodyshell. With the early spider one has to wonder if stiffening the front structure might induce more flex at the weak  point  which must be the sill area below the doors?

[Oldbones]

Thanks for your comment and I have read through the thread linked

You've got me thinking now about the risk of transferring the stresses.

I have made a basis brace out of aluminium sqaure section just to gauge if it makes a difference to the handling. It will be easy to remove if needs be

Cheers
John

[rossocorsa]

what about putting some tubular internal reinforcement (rather like side impact protection bars) in the doors, some betas had these as standard but not sure which years or markets that might at least improve rigidity with the doors closed

[lanciamad]

In the case of the strut brace, or as i've done with the rear turrets in the HPE a tubular piece of tube welded between both turrets. Is purely to strengthen the shell, the same loadings are going to happen to the car, these are now being resisted and being spread across the car at a lower impact than all the load being taken out on one side or at one point, and makes the suspension do its job rather than the body bending and flexing at every opportunity. I know after having all my delta turbo turrets re-welded with thicker metal than standard, I still managed to pull the turrets ever so slightly in with an adjustable strut brace, handles like it's on rails now