Chassis Stiffness

mandbstanley · Post by **mandbstanley** » Sun May 19, 2002 7:57 pm

I recently drove a friend's 94 model car (thanks Gerry) and was amazed at
how stiff the car felt compared to my 91 version. His car had a front tower
brace and also the cockpit brace that is standard on 1800cc versions. If I
was to fit those braces to my car, would it also noticeably stiffen it up,
or is there more to the stiffness on the 1800cc cars than just those two
braces?

Cheers,
Murray Stanley
MXCAPE

Charles & Morven Lynch · Post by **Charles & Morven Lynch** » Sun May 19, 2002 10:38 pm

Murray,
I always thought that 1.8's had extra structural bracing on the chassis,
but I can't find any mention of it in any of my books. They only talk
about the brace bars that you mentioned.
There is another brace though, that the 94s have, that isn't on your car.

From 1992 onwards an extra sub-frame brace was added at the rear. I

believe that you can buy aftermarket versions locally for about $50. You
can also get a front subframe brace(same price) which would probably help too.
However extra weight = less speed. I'm not fitting them until I lose
enough weight to compensate

There might also be an element of the cars getting 'looser' as they get older.
Cheers
Chic
TOPDWN
--
Charles & Morven Lynch, chicnmo@lynchz.com on 19/05/2002

On Sun, 19 May 2002 19:57:05 +1200, mandbstanley wrote:
[...]

MC · Post by MC » Mon May 20, 2002 10:06 am

Hi Murray
before you start adding braces (always a good idea) you need to take in a
few more factors with a 91 MX5, you may have the original shocks, if you
have! they could be well past their use by date, (depending on mileage
60,000max), replacing worn shocks would be far more noticeable than any
brace you would care to add, also your friends 94 may be low mileage and may
even have Bilsteins fitted or other suspension mods, the 1800 certainly
carried a lot more braces on the rear subframe and the one behind the seats.
MC

Mark Roberts · Post by **Mark Roberts** » Mon May 20, 2002 10:28 am

Interesting - if I didn't want to spend a fortune what should I get
and where? I'm in Auckland.

[...]

Graeme Naisbitt · Post by **Graeme Naisbitt** » Mon May 20, 2002 10:29 am

Ross at MX5 Parts does the braces, one of the first mods I did on my 5, and
I could certainly feel the difference.

Graeme
D4NGER

Gary Morrison · Post by **Gary Morrison** » Mon May 20, 2002 10:39 am

Good advice. New shocks will make the car feel more solid. Its worth adding
the two lower braces too, but my understanding is that the upper braces in
the engine and at the seatbelt towers will do little to add rigidity.

Gary

Ross and Meg · Post by **Ross and Meg** » Mon May 20, 2002 11:11 am

that would be Ross Campbell
mx5mart.co.nz

89mx5

Graeme Naisbitt · Post by **Graeme Naisbitt** » Mon May 20, 2002 11:24 am

oops, yes sorry, half asleep when I posted that

From MattGunn@newstalkzb.co.nz Fri Apr 27 16:12:49 2007
content-class: urn:content-classes:message
Subject: RE: What happens if you forget to clamp the roof!
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Date: Mon, 20 May 2002 11:25:27 +1200
Thread-Topic: What happens if you forget to clamp the roof!
Thread-Index: AcH/hUV+C9q6Pc9dTyGcehqUYWGkLgABxrhA
From: "Matt Gunn" <MattGunn@newstalkzb.co.nz>
To: "MX5List" <mx5list@mx5club.org.nz>
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Precedence: list
Message-ID: <4IUN3C.A._HB.1jXMGB@L733>

quicker than an electric job I'm sure.

How loud was the bang ???

MADMXV

Who is online