CHASSIS STIFFENING BARS
In
the quest for DTM handling capabilities, stiffening up the chassis is the first
place to start. Unfortunately there are not many suppliers of chassis
stiffening bars (for the W201) but I was lucky enough to locate a company called
D&W that makes a front bar just for the W201. Only bad thing about the bar
was that it did not fit! About 1" too long, go figure, as all the W201
chassis's were the same. D&W claims that the particular bar I had was
designed for the 2.6 and would fit my 1992 model, yea right! No amount of
fiddling would make it fit, so it was off to a race fabricator who so generously
allowed me to use their TIG welder (for a donation of $50). After careful
measurements, I cut 1" off the bar and using hollow aluminum bar stock, cut a
new end and welded it on. While I don't have any pictures of the exact
procedure, my new end and welded seam actually looks better than what D&W did.
I don't recommend you try this at home, let a professional welder do it for you.
To
install this front bar, you use the existing mounting points on your shock
tower, its easier if you take the ends off the bar, mount them and then bolt the
bar in place. One thing to not, while the bar does not have a front/back
indicator, it is possible to put it on backwards, that would tilt the flat plane
of the bar upwards, not sure if that would do any harm, probably would work just
fine, just look kind of strange.
With the bulk head of the W201, you need to notch it for this bar to fit,
in this picture you can see where I notched the bulk head, the rubber
molding still fits but did require a bit of trimming on the bottom so it would
sit flush against the bar. I actually trimmed too much of the bulk head,
you wouldn't have to trim as much as I did for the bar to clear.
This
is the bar fitted with the rubber molding back in place. The bar itself
will bolt into the two mounting points easy, so there is no worries about taking
it apart.
Of
course here is the finished product. Contrary to what some state, all the
DTM race cars use front/rear chassis stiffening bars. Whether you car uses
a strut or shock design is irrelevant, what we are doing here is strengthening
up the chassis and eliminating flex. Does it work? Hell yes and
proven on the track.
Now
the rear strut bar was going to be a bit trickier, as I could not locate any
company that still made rear chassis bars for the W201. I purchased this
240sx rear bar off of Ebay after looking at one in a local speed shop. It
had the right dimensions, but of course the ends would not work, so that left me
with a bit of fabrication work.
I purchased some 440 stainless steel bar stock from the local hardware
outlet. While this bar stock was much stronger than the feeble aluminum
ends that originally came on the bar, I doubled them up just to be on the safe
side. They needed to be cut down and of course the holes needed to be
increase to fit the bolts to the chassis bar and to go over the rear shock post.
Cutting and drilling on the end pieces, 440 stainless steel does not cut very
easy. Make sure you have enough Dremel cutting wheels!
This is the finished end piece with the chassis bar bolt fitting for
clearance, I doubled these up for strength.
Here
is the new end piece being test fitted to the rear shock post. I have seen
different companies make chassis bars that attach at this point and others that
bolt directly to the body. While I could not determine where the chassis
bars on the W201 DTM cars mount exactly, I chose this route since it required
the least amount of fabrication.
This
picture shows the bar and bar end being test fitted. The plastic trunk
trim pieces need to be notched so they will fit flush up to the bar, but since
they are plastic, its a simple procedure.
The
other side being test fitted
Of course the final product. Even with my Basslink, there were no
clearance issues, as the bar actually sits behind the Basslink up against the
gas tank. Again, a very worth wile mod that cost very little (under $30)
and just a few hours of fabrication time.
<Back
In
the quest for DTM handling capabilities, stiffening up the chassis is the first
place to start. Unfortunately there are not many suppliers of chassis
stiffening bars (for the W201) but I was lucky enough to locate a company called
D&W that makes a front bar just for the W201. Only bad thing about the bar
was that it did not fit! About 1" too long, go figure, as all the W201
chassis's were the same. D&W claims that the particular bar I had was
designed for the 2.6 and would fit my 1992 model, yea right! No amount of
fiddling would make it fit, so it was off to a race fabricator who so generously
allowed me to use their TIG welder (for a donation of $50). After careful
measurements, I cut 1" off the bar and using hollow aluminum bar stock, cut a
new end and welded it on. While I don't have any pictures of the exact
procedure, my new end and welded seam actually looks better than what D&W did.
I don't recommend you try this at home, let a professional welder do it for you.
To
install this front bar, you use the existing mounting points on your shock
tower, its easier if you take the ends off the bar, mount them and then bolt the
bar in place. One thing to not, while the bar does not have a front/back
indicator, it is possible to put it on backwards, that would tilt the flat plane
of the bar upwards, not sure if that would do any harm, probably would work just
fine, just look kind of strange.
