ALFAGTV6.COM

[Duk]

here some bracing of the lower parts...

Wow, whole new chassis rails .
Dedicated track car?

[Dennis]

no, this is a streetcar. The guy who owned the car works in a raceteam that modifies it's racecars this way. There is additional bracing from the enginebay aswell, on the racecars that is.

This setup is also on my racecar. It absolutely transforms the handling.

[Mats]

Sits below the original ones? Or is the engine raised in the pictures? Control arm fixing points lowered?
Or is it going inside the original rail? Why is the sump lower surface so different in height to what I'm used to see?

[Duk]

Or is it going inside the original rail? Why is the sump lower surface so different in height to what I'm used to see?

Looks like new rails are inside the originals to me.
Maybe the sump looking strange is a bit of an optical illusion. Because of the new rails extending forwards and staying horizontal when you're use to seeing the chassis sweep up Maybe

Still quite amazed at how major that is for a road car.

[Maurizio]

Sits below the original ones? Or is the engine raised in the pictures? Control arm fixing points lowered?
Or is it going inside the original rail? Why is the sump lower surface so different in height to what I'm used to see?

Original rail was opened and square tube shoved in, rest is standard, strange look is from the foto angle.

I had interest in the car (a lot other nice upgrades on this TS) but this tubing made it a no-no for me.

I don't like to comment on something when there is no one who can defend his own work.

But the need/effectiveness/outcome on this particular car wasn't done very nicely in my book. If you go into so much trouble with converting, I like to recognize knowledge behind it.
The basic idea is good but it has to be done with more care for detail.

So it is wise to have some decent knowledge of strength / stiffness and how to couple new and original steel by welding in an efficient way.

[Zamani]

Maurizio,

For a race car do you recommend putting reinforcement bars inside the fenders as you described earlier (except for the "yellow" brace in your drawing).

What do you recommend for reinforcing the lower part of the engine bay?

[Maurizio]

Maurizio,For a race car do you recommend putting reinforcement bars inside the fenders as you described earlier (except for the "yellow" brace in your drawing).

Yes, best would be a square tube for the horizontal, but Fia doesn't allow square.
A good example see attached picture, just a good connection between original shock towers needs to be added.

What do you recommend for reinforcing the lower part of the engine bay?

Bit difficult to describe, haven't done it myself (yet)
The basic idea before was good, the details makes it better.

I give it a try, so in a nut shell my ideas
Instead of a square tube, I would use a H beam. The largest loading forces from the A-arms are horizontal (when cornering) thus the two walls placed vertical.
The H-beam runs until the mounting point of the torsion bars. At the A-arms position I would drill a large(r) hole through the horizontal plate of the H-beam. A tube to create an encapsulated through hole for the A-arm bolts. From the tube an X bracing under 30 deg towards the outside of the beam.

A section cut would look like this (only x more spread):
.\ . /
-- o --
. / . \

The bottom of the H (towards the street) could be closed with thin (0.7-1 [mm]) sheet.
Good care has to be taken in welding new to the old sheet metal.
A good idea would be to put the front ar bar on the new, much stiffer construction.

[TNT]

While i was listening to Billy Idol (white wedding) i took a look at the picture (the one that i attached) of the SZ Chassis. It seems to be quite different than the ordinary 116 chassis and i don't mean the obvious, that it is a 2 door coupe, what i think is that the front part is "boxed" , the A pillar is connected to the V of the fender via this "box". I can't explain it better so have a look yourself guys.

cheers

[Duk]

Very interesting considering every thing I'd been able to find on the SZ says that they were built on a shortened standard 75 chassis.

[darryl longley]

Very interesting considering every thing I'd been able to find on the SZ says that they were built on a shortened standard 75 chassis.

how much shorter than the 75 is the sz,like gtv6 shorter?

[Duk]

how much shorter than the 75 is the sz,like gtv6 shorter?

Since you asked, I had a quick web search and found this http://www.carfolio.com/specifications/ ... dimensions, but it's the same wheel base dimentions as the pic. Strange as I'd read more than once that they were shorter http://www.alfaworkshop.co.uk/alfa_sz.shtml:

[Maurizio]

from the SZ source: http://home.planet.nl/~evdbeek/es-30.html

Dimensions:
- Wheelbase: 2.510 m.
- Track: front 1.464 m /rear: 1,426 m
- Length: 4.060 m.
- Width: 1.730 m.
- Height: 1.300 m.

[Duk]

SZ Track: front 1464 mm rear 1426 mm
75 Track: front 1396 mm rear 1382 mm

Is the difference in track purely from wheel offset?

68mm more track width would make noticable differance to the behaviour of the front. But a 34mm change to the wheel offset would have a pretty major effect on the scrub radius of the steering.

[Maurizio]

SZ Track: front 1464 mm rear 1426 mm
75 Track: front 1396 mm rear 1382 mm

Is the difference in track purely from wheel offset?

68mm more track width would make noticable differance to the behaviour of the front. But a 34mm change to the wheel offset would have a pretty major effect on the scrub radius of the steering.

An sz runs 7x16 et 7 in front and 8x16 et 20 wheels in the back.
I have run these wheels on my V6 and it works pretty well.
Only the 75 chassis is at the front not that happy with the wide wheels

[Mats]

SZ Track: front 1464 mm rear 1426 mm
75 Track: front 1396 mm rear 1382 mm

Is the difference in track purely from wheel offset?

68mm more track width would make noticable differance to the behaviour of the front. But a 34mm change to the wheel offset would have a pretty major effect on the scrub radius of the steering.

They quote a lot of different tracks in the workshop manuals due to the wheels, so yes, I'd say the wheels.