What is this GTX Chassis brace deal?

Damn William you guys missed your calling so to speak.

The GTX guys on the yahoo list are buying these things up like crazy @ $189 a pop w/ $40 shipping.

They guy has 15 paid orders so far... it's been like 10 days...

$3000+ to make 15 of those?!! Sounds good to me.

What are some of yalls impressions of this thing? Me? I'm not so sure. They're calling it a chassis brace/ skid plate...

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Michael LeCompte

every Subaru aftermarket company has about 3-4 different versions of sub-frame 'braces'.....dunno if they work.

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Jon Burke - KI6LSW
Blog: http://psgrallywrx.blogspot.com/

Does virtually nothing but add weight. The car is not particularly weak there and the so called brace is made of tubing that is too small and has too many bends to add and significant stiffness. I'm sure the internet boyz will tell you how much stiffer the car feels and how many mph faster they can go through a corner with that thing now, though...

BUT DAAAAVE... They say it's "BULLETPROOF CONSTRUCTION"...and "TREMENDOUSLY INCREASES STRENGTH OF THE UNIBODY"... and "KEEP YOUR INVESTMENT FROM FALLING APART"... I'm SOOO skeert/skurred now, not to have one.

They say: "DON'T LET THIS HAPPEN TO YOUR CAR!"






Seriously though... Is it a good idea to mount a skidplate to the lower control arm bolt locations like that or in rally are you just asking for trouble because you'd be adding stresses to those areas? Would it be better to bolt the skid plate to the floor?

I agree, that thing doesn't look like it's made of much. It weighs ~10lbs from what I hear.

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Michael LeCompte



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/04/2009 07:58AM by pikespeakgtx.

It's all pent up consumer angst...they're all so sad that the bought a crappy orphaned car they will buy anything. This is the first "new" underbody brace since RRE stopped supporting the car 10+ years ago so it lets people feel like they have a Honda and can modify it with tuner parts When did the GTX become retirement investment capital that must be preserved???

/rant

I miss my GTX. This post even made me have a quick look at the local classified to see if I could find one to use as a winter beater, but I think they are now an extinct specie in this part of the world.

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Francois

You whinney bitches are all jealous you didn't invent it first. I'm sure it'll stop all that chassis rust and the low hanging cross braces will never snag on anything. That is probably one of the only new parts you can get for a GTX other than oil filters . I may just get one now and hope to find a GTX later.

heymagic Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> You whinney bitches are all jealous you didn't
> invent it first. I'm sure it'll stop all that
> chassis rust and the low hanging cross braces will
> never snag on anything. That is probably one of
> the only new parts you can get for a GTX other
> than oil filters . I may just get one now and
> hope to find a GTX later.


Daaaaaayum, mang that's thinking ahead!
You're fawkin brilliant!!!

If'n yous wuz really clever, you could buy 'em all up, and Ebay 'em and make a million dollars!

Then you could order some Sooooper Bitchin suspenders for the Stow 323!!!

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John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

heymagic Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
I may just get one now and
> hope to find a GTX later.


You rule Gene. Its that kind of thinking that made America great.

pikespeakgtx Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> BUT DAAAAVE... They say it's "BULLETPROOF
> CONSTRUCTION"...and "TREMENDOUSLY INCREASES
> STRENGTH OF THE UNIBODY"... and "KEEP YOUR
> INVESTMENT FROM FALLING APART"... I'm SOOO
> skeert/skurred now, not to have one.
>
> They say: "DON'T LET THIS HAPPEN TO YOUR CAR!"
>

They're claiming it prevents rust? I'm pretty sure it won't do that.

>
>
>
>
>
> Seriously though... Is it a good idea to mount a
> skidplate to the lower control arm bolt locations
> like that or in rally are you just asking for
> trouble because you'd be adding stresses to those
> areas? Would it be better to bolt the skid plate
> to the floor?
>

The bolts would probably just pull through the rusty floor anyway.

All my poor ol' GTX had was a lower strut brace, and a skidplate, and it never broke like that, and man oh man that car had a long career being rode hard and put away wet before I got my mitts on it. It held up to all that rally abuse just fine till I hit that tree on Emerald Forest and I don't think this chunk o' ironmongery woulda helped out all that much...

---

Jay Woodward
Snohomish, WA
'90 Mazdog Frankenprotege
Chronologically, 46...

As others ahve mentioned,

fail!

---

Andrew M
Onterrible
30ish

Yeah especially Tim's remark about pent up consumer angst. Hit that one straight on the head.

It's also proof of herd behavior and it really shows the power of social influence upon the things we buy.

---

Michael LeCompte

pikespeakgtx Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Yeah especially Tim's remark about pent up
> consumer angst. Hit that one straight on the
> head.
>
> It's also proof of herd behavior and it really
> shows the power of social influence upon the
> things we buy.

That's why I say "do everything for a reason"
>
>
>
> Michael LeCompte

---

John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

pikespeakgtx Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>
> They say: "DON'T LET THIS HAPPEN TO YOUR CAR!"
>

If a car is rusty enough that the suspension falls off, bracing the weak spots before they break is just cutting the wires to the warning siren that should scream GET A NEW CAR ALREADY.

BTDT twice. The first time was my Subaru where the seatbelts pulled through the floor when it was 10 years old. That's dangerous. The second time I kept shoring the car up until finally the engine died at me and I came to my senses.

Okay the 323GTX is rare. There's a reason it's rare, it's a disposa-car. I bet that there are some safety razor enthusiasts who are upset that some people have 1989 vintage Schick razor blades that they're using up and throwing out instead of preserving.

Instead of braces, maybe find someone who can punch out the GTX-specific panels so you can fix the shells. (Just a thought) Or work out a way of using FWD shells, which probably won't happen since the nose of that thing looks vastly different, FWDs have a crossmember where that brace thingy goes and the control arms bolt to the crossmember like the Good Ford intended.

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Pete Remner
Cleveland, Ohio

1984 RX-7 (rallycross thing)
1978
Silence is golden, but duct tape is silver.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/06/2009 06:47AM by Pete.