All this playing around with my Coupe made me wonder: has
anyone ever fitted cross braces between the ‘‘pillars’’ next
to the radiator? If so was the reduction in body flex
noticable? A friend drove his XJ without the engine bay bars
the other day and he felt that the car really lost a lot of
structural strength; I wonder if the same applies to the
front end and if yes why the factory never bothered?
In reply to a message from Arnoud sent Sun 29 Jun 2008:
Arnoud:
Yes!
Three sides of that box are fairly substantial material. The top
chord is a bit flimsy.
I saw a picture of a car on the ‘‘other’’ list. It used an aluminum
channel of fairly heavy guage in lie of the sheet metal. it looked
like it would certainly resist any inwards forcves from the spring
towers. Similarly, the wing braces have been improved by additional
metal strap or tubing from one to the other. Other similar
momnocoque cars modified for performance add bracing across the
wings. An X across the front of the radiator seems ideal for
strength reasons, but problemsone as to air restriction.
Go for some sort of aditional bracing.
Carl–
The original message included these comments:
All this playing around with my Coupe made me wonder: has
anyone ever fitted cross braces between the ‘‘pillars’’ next
to the radiator? If so was the reduction in body flex
noticable? A friend drove his XJ without the engine bay bars
the other day and he felt that the car really lost a lot of
structural strength; I wonder if the same applies to the
front end and if yes why the factory never bothered?