Request Rule to allow a Three Piece front cross member.

Details in a separate thread, but in summary:

1 No performance advantage!
2 Cheaper Long Term Maintenance advantage.
A. Can Change Rod bearings without needing an expensive alignment
B. Can do Pan Gasket oil leak fixes and rod bearing replacement / inspection without significant extra labor cost of removing the entire front cross member and suspension.
3 If anyone does not feel that the cost is worth it, then there is no compelling reason to do it.

Let the firestorm begin!!

My popcorn is staying in the cup board.

My popcorn is staying in the cup board.

My popcorn is staying in the cup board.

Good Insight Tim. In case everyone is not aware, Tim is truly one of the OG's of this class. He knows these cars better than most and even runs a business building street and race versions.

Chuck do you have a specific part in mind you can share a link to?

I'd be curious to know the weight difference. My only question about this is, how often are you changing rod bearings/oil pan gaskets? We only do rod bearings every 2 seasons preventatively and have never had a pan gasket fail. My suspicion is that this cross member is greatly more expensive than a couple of front end alignments every 2 years?
Enlighten us.

Lindsey Racing modifies them for about $315.

www.lindseyracing.com/LR/Porsche/LRA-951-XMEM.html

I'm not pro or con re the 3 piece crossmember right now, but...
- Thought I remember a couple failures during hard racing? True or no?
- You can scribe your crossmember, caster blocks, and chassis to get things back to where they were upon reinstall of your crossmember after a rod bearing change.
Weight- a stock unit is cut into 3 pieces so there's a little extra weight for the plates used to bolt the 3 pieces together.
Chuck Sharp's 944 does double duty with his wife driving most weekends he does, so bearings get done more freq.
So we're balancing the 1 time cost of $315 with the cost of multiple alignments?
On the surface, it looks like a cost savings that also promotes reliability while offering no perf advantge? Cons?

tcomeau wrote:


Cons are really all safety related. There was a story of the bolts coming loose at the track and having to be checked regularly for being tight. I have no first hand knowledge but that was the third hand story.