Opinions please. I have kept my front crash bar, which makes mounting everything a bit of a pain to say the least, and its a heavy lump of metal at the front of the car, blocking airflow etc. However, I cannot fail to notice that many UK guys just junk it completely, frees up space and gets rid of weight and its easy enough to reinforce the bumper to mount directly onto the car with a few brackets. My reluctance to do this is based upon the reasoning that any head on impact, even slight will result in far greater damge done to the car if the crash bar is taken out?? Is this sound? Should I junk it? I dont want to have a low speed crash, on or off track that then writes the entire car off. But on the other hand, am I missing a trick Thoughts guys??
Rich IMO it needs to stay! its used for towing on road and off of a track. it slides into the main chassis rails which will help keep everything square not to mention what it does in a crash. with out it if you have a head on the engine will take the full force and there is only one direction thats coming.... towards you! its around 20kg iirc? I don't recall what you have left interior wise? have you removed the rear speakers incl their boxs?
with a 200ftlb engine your not going to notice taking 20lbs off the car. you will also loose about 50 percent of the strength in the front end. that crash bar not only saves your ass but it ties the two frame rails together. I say take it off and after a few turns on the track, after take it to a frame shop and i bet you the chassi is tweaked.
Cheers guys, thats what I think too, No offence to some of the other guys who have taken it out, but I just dont see the upside. I was prompted by what Brett has done to his car. Good point re the towing Steve, would hate to think what a marshall would do to the car without anything obvious to tow. Steve rear trim has all gone, rear side panels had to stay and front trim is as stock as per the TSS regs. also agree on the chassis twisting point, already my car is slightly out of square (noticed this when fitting seats.) so as you both say, taking out that front beam could only make it worse. The shell stiffness on the 165 uk car is very poor, I know my car has not had a crash at all in its history, but the constant track work has moved the shell about. Thats cool, I did think i was perhaps missing a trick. Not forgotern bout those rear arms Steve, its just digging them out of the loft in the garage, and the cars in the way at the mo, in bits lol.
unless you wanna spend big bucks making a custom alloy one that wouldnt be that much lighter definately keep it
when i rear ended someone going 35mph or so that thing saved my ass, or my cars ass i should say..if it wasnt there, radiator woulda been toast and fans and maybe even my headers :O...definately keep it, in ur case its not just ur radiator that would be toast, u got ur intercooler and whatever that other little cooler is(what is that?)
Its for the transmission and the one behind is for the PAS. You are so right, I had fogortern bout your crash, yeah without that protection, a lot of damage would be done.
Only things I can see are to lighten it slightly by drilling holes, removing the two heavy tow hooks and fit a lighter one to the bottom crossmember Taking the whole thing out is dumb, making a replacement will be almost as heavy, but weight ahead of the front shocks needs addressing
