Not Ranked
Jerry,
The original down tube connection by CR's allowed two places for water to hold and built up rust. since most bars were chromed or powder coated the eventual rust build up was pretty easy to remove-until age set in, then trying to remove the roll bar for any reason is almost impossible. The proposed bar will have no spots to hold water thus ending the rust question for good.
Fatigue and a "lathed" joint is a question but this is an absolute non moving part, (excluding vibration) which I assume "fatigue" on such a part should not come into question,anymore so as the original CR junction.
Weight: the 1/4" wall will only be aproximately 2"s long adding minimal weight and with this being a streetcar we're talking less than a +/- lb., and with Ed's Torque rating and HP I don't think he would notice. (Ed loose the weight if you want but I don't think it would be necessary for this piece.)
I think (?) doing it this way would be stronger than a partial inner weld and a single 1/4 x 20 bolt. If the roll bar was ever put to use the force is normally back with a downward motion just eliminating any chance of breakage or failure, especially with the down leg attached to the frame itself in front of the rear wheels. In the extreme chance it would roll and spin, putting the car in a backward motion, but still moviong forward AND if the bar should hook on a Curb (?) again the mount at the bottom of the main frame rails will keep the bar from going toward the driver. The main cross over bar is bolted into the 4x4crossover beam of the frame it would be almost impossible to pulling apart.
Weight #2, I totally understand weight, we took every thing we could take-off-, cut out, modified for DVII except drilling the frame like swiss cheese. I just didn't have the know-how to do that properly, but we did think about it! In fact when we got done with it, (remember it was full Viper powered and driven with the V-10 -T-56 with a huge quick change rear end. Per SCCA we had to ADD 700 lbs to make it class legal! Talk about a kick in the arse! Try finding ways to add 700 lbs. to a car you spent a year shaving weight from! (When we were done, the driver in full race uniform with helmet we made it by 3 lbs!)
I do have a pretty good grasp on weight, vs stop/go.
Jerry anytime you have questions,suggestions, your expertise is more than welcome here!I thank you for the offer of the steel too!
DV
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