Corvette race frame bracing/modification

Regular DOM is much easier to work with.

As for going up in height, I have to agree, that's the only proper way to get a serious increase in torsional stiffness. In a shallow plane you will always be limited. Of course, just a roll bar is'n't going to do a whole lot. A full cage with proper triangulation & nested tubes. That's something I rarely see in the cages posted, most of them are focused on tucking away the tubes so they don't protrude into the passenger compartment too much but IMO nesting, straight (or as straight as possible) tubes and such make for the strongest solution.
 
I mean that all the tubes intersect in the same location

Like this:
2480f09eccd7f6.jpg

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Instead of oen tube welded up higher than the other and so on. This way is the strongest way to do it.
 
69427 said:
My opinion.....

I disagree!

A roll cage is not a guarantee of a stiff frame. These frames main shortcoming is a lack of torsional strength. Unless a proper cage is installed, and not just a roll bar or driver compartment cage, the frame will still lack any improvement for much of the wheelbase. A complete cage from wheel corner to corner is required. Not practical for most street driven vehicles obviously, as most guys don't want to cut up their car. On a race car, it's a given that there will be a full cage, although many are more geared towards rollover protection than torsional improvement. For a street Corvette, modifications to the stock frame are recommended if one wants to be able to effectively tune the suspension.
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TheSkunkWorks said:
One can save some weight with thinner 4130 chromium molybdenum (chrome moly) in lieu of thicker mild steel, no?
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Speaking from experience, I had to replace the frame on my Vette because it had rotted out at the rear kick up. I had it replaced with a round tube frame. The new frame is about 25% lighter and many times stiffer then the stock frame. If I would have had the budget I would have bought a Cro-Mo TIG welded round tube frame which would have saved me about another 20 to 30 pounds and been stronger and stiffer. The new round tube frame fits perfectly under the body of my vette. The only reason I have to do any mods to the body is because I had the rear narrowed so that I could put in much wider tires without having to mod the body.

frame1.jpg


Next year I plan on putting in an 8 point roll cage. That will stiffen up the car a lot, one other mod I am planning to do is make a bracket to tie together where the upper A-arms attach to the frame.

Obviously this route completely destroys any historical accuracy if you are trying to re-create a historical car, like the early 70's LeMans racers (very cool cars IMHO)
 
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