First off... a little about the car. I have a cloth/hardtop TTA which now has 3100 miles on it. All mods so far are bolt in, and I have all the original take-off parts except for the original muffler. Keep this in mind when you read the rest of my post.
I recently purchased some Global West subframe connectors, but they are still sitting on the floor of my garage, mostly because my welder friend who was going to help me install them hasn't had the time. Meanwhile, I've been thinking, and I don't know if I really want to put them on or not. If I had a t-top car, I'd put them on in a heartbeat. However, I have a hardtop car... and while it's a lot stiffer than a T-top car, I know that subframes will still help things.
Of all the knowledgeable people I've talked to in person, 3 of them are for subframes (including myself) and about 12 people (including some other TTA owners) say I'm nuts for wanting to weld to a cloth/hardtop car.
Let me elaborate.
The car doesn't get driven much. Local carshows usually ever other week, and occasionally shows about an hour away. I don't plan on dragging the car much, maybe an occasional trip to the strip 2 or 3 times a summer. I won't be out there every weekend cutting 1.8 60' times. I'll never run slicks on the car, but I might run drag radials at some point, but even those aren't likely. I don't plan on modding it much faster than it is now (12.30ish on street tires, I'm doing a THDP and replacing the Slowmaster with a straight-through muffler and I'm done). It'll never see a transbrake. Driving on the street, I never launch it hard, I roll out slowly and then ease into the throttle. So, in all honesty, and taking my driving style and usage into account, should I weld to a car with 13 siblings left?
I'd appreciate any input here. Based on how I'm going to use the car, are they *really* necessary?
Thanks for any advice... the engineer part of my brain is telling me "anything you can do to strengthen the unibody is a good thing!" while the car collector part of my brain is telling me "this is going to the first and a fairly substantial permanent modification to a very rare car." Please help me clear my head!
[ 07-26-2002, 02:51 AM: Message edited by: Gokou ]
I recently purchased some Global West subframe connectors, but they are still sitting on the floor of my garage, mostly because my welder friend who was going to help me install them hasn't had the time. Meanwhile, I've been thinking, and I don't know if I really want to put them on or not. If I had a t-top car, I'd put them on in a heartbeat. However, I have a hardtop car... and while it's a lot stiffer than a T-top car, I know that subframes will still help things.
Of all the knowledgeable people I've talked to in person, 3 of them are for subframes (including myself) and about 12 people (including some other TTA owners) say I'm nuts for wanting to weld to a cloth/hardtop car.
Let me elaborate.
The car doesn't get driven much. Local carshows usually ever other week, and occasionally shows about an hour away. I don't plan on dragging the car much, maybe an occasional trip to the strip 2 or 3 times a summer. I won't be out there every weekend cutting 1.8 60' times. I'll never run slicks on the car, but I might run drag radials at some point, but even those aren't likely. I don't plan on modding it much faster than it is now (12.30ish on street tires, I'm doing a THDP and replacing the Slowmaster with a straight-through muffler and I'm done). It'll never see a transbrake. Driving on the street, I never launch it hard, I roll out slowly and then ease into the throttle. So, in all honesty, and taking my driving style and usage into account, should I weld to a car with 13 siblings left?
I'd appreciate any input here. Based on how I'm going to use the car, are they *really* necessary?
Thanks for any advice... the engineer part of my brain is telling me "anything you can do to strengthen the unibody is a good thing!" while the car collector part of my brain is telling me "this is going to the first and a fairly substantial permanent modification to a very rare car." Please help me clear my head!
[ 07-26-2002, 02:51 AM: Message edited by: Gokou ]
