Colin Chapman is spinning in his grave.

 

From a recent FB post, looks like FM has something in the works with Paco Motorsports (they make the eccentric locks).

Quote from the post:

 

Paco needs to go back to welding school.

 

I saw that too, cringed a bit. Apparently it's not their normal welder that did the welding. I sure as hell hope not.

 

 

My prototypes welds look the same lol. Id hold judgment until the final release.

 

Yeah, I saw Keith post on FB that those pics are just from the prototype to check for proper fitment, those are not final production welds. He also said they will be 8 lbs each side? That seems heavy.

 

Prototype Bubblegum aside......If you need a brace, and you are going to pay $250.00 no matter what?.....That looks hard to argue with!

 

I'd think if you need that much reinforcement in the front of the car then you should probably be running a full cage and tie it into the front shock towers.

 

Just noticed, but does that rear gusset/strut section actually cover up part of the wheel well? the part where those of us running 9s or 10s almost rub to begin with.

Being paco, they are probably marketed to the offload/lifted crowd which wouldnt be an issue for them.

 

Gotta love poco. he takes his inspiration from off-road trophy trucks.

A story some might enjoy about trophy trucks.

I got a call in from a desert racer.
Racer: My truck does not want to stop. at 100mph it's terrifying. the problem is we have to use 15" wheels.
OG: We can get allot of brake into a 15"wheel. nascar for example.
Racer: great, we keep melting the brake lines and piston seats.
OG: holy cow! how much does your truck weigh?
Racer: 7000 lbs with spare tires.
OG:..... I think you're screwed.


turns out that with all the regulations and trying to keep the truck as light as possible. they were forced to use 11.75" brakes and dynalights. same stuff we use on out 2000lbs cars that don't have 150lbs of tire.

 

I think at a certain point you just have to admit the fender brace idea is not perfect. That's a huge brace and I'm sure it stiffens up that area more effectively than any other brace. But none of them tie in directly to the shock tower. That's a lot of weight to add only to have thin OE sheetmetal still in the load path.

Any increase in stiffness is good, but I feel like these 7lb plate steel contraptions (Boss Frog and Paco) fall into the overkill side of things, and the weight/benefit ratio isn't quite there compared to a simple triangulated design.

Also, I hate when people cut their logo into something that's supposed to be structural. It screams "This section is unnecessary".

 

Aidan would still break them.

 

I stand corrected!

 

Adding a boat anchor to the front of the car... not high on my to-do list. Heavy for the sake of being strong is appropriate for... tanks. Not Miatas. A good design from a performance perspective balances strength with weight. Hint: plate steel is the wrong approach. IMO saying it's made by an offroad-focused company doesn't justify anything, the GOOD off road race stuff still keeps a close eye on the weight of things, just scaled up for the higher loads of the heavier vehicle, because the lighter vehicle is faster, regardless of the terrain.

 

It's kinda like how they used to engineer cars in the 60's, if it doesn't look strong enough either add more steel or make the existing steel thicker haha

 

Yup that is pretty much my thoughts on the whole stick on brace thing
.
On the other hand, making it so is unbelievably expensive and time consuming.
We are probably going to go with a Blackbird street cage, door bars, everything but the bars at the top of the doors and some tubular work on the front end to reduce weight and to tie everything together....$$,$$$.$$
Not many guys are going to do that stuff on anything other than a race car.

 

Yeah, I went with the V8R braces in the end. I didn't need overkill and read the positive comments about the Garage Star and V8R versions. We'll see about ride quality in the Northeast after this winter and minimal road maintenance locally! I've sacrificed that all along the way with FM springs & 15" Proxes, but oh, the turn in. I made some other purchases while waiting for the snow to melt, MS and FMII on the horizon!

 

 

The trucks are AWD. Did no one suggest inboard brakes like a Jaguar or are they disallowed, too?

Dana44 Jaguar setup:


Or a supplemental disc brake on the driveshaft(s)?



Or two calipers per rotor (which I've seen somewhere)?