hey guys i have a 96 gle and i took it to an autocross meet in college station a couple of months ago, it didnt do bad but i need new tires for sure. just had a quick question. i read some where that the maxima had a unibody construction for the frame. is that true? and if this is true how does a unibody car hold up after repeated use at the autocross track? thanks


-Daniel

 

Yes the Maxima as well as most other cars produced today use this type of structure. Manufactures use unibody structures now because it's typically lighter and gives the car a more rigid feel than a frame for mass production.

Anything that takes a beating will wear out quicker. I wouldn't really worry too much about it. If you really want it to be rigid, take all the moldings and stuff off and weld all the seams. Never done it myself, but some hard core racers do it to make the body and integrated frame more rigid than the spot type weld used for production.

 

Interesting concern but I doubt the chassis will fail. I've got near 100 runs on my '97 and nothing's come apart. Barry ran his '96 for about 4yrs and he never mentioned probs. David locally still roadcourses his '95 and no probs.

Actually, in all my racing discussion boards of all cars I've never heard that concern.

 

I wouldn't worry about the chassis failing... it'd take some major stress to cause any issues... and I mean MAJOR.

What part of houston are you at? You comingout the the March regionals at gulf gray hound?

http://conecrazy.org/forum - a lot of us are in the houston area.

-S

 

i am at the Univeristy of houston and i live on campus. if ya'll have any events coming up u have a mailing list e-mail me at amixam6903@yahoo.com thanks for the web site i will definitely check it out. i also dont know much about the races and meets b/c i am a freshman here but i am interested in going to any events

 

Glad to see you were out there at College station. It was a fun course. I was racing my Red Mirage in FSP. One thing to consider if you are that worried about it is this stuff:
http://www.itwfoamseal.com/automotive.htm

It's a foam that you can inject into your frame rails for stiffening. It's very common in newer luxury cars to stiffen the chassis without adding bracing. BTW, If you are interested we are running an event here in Austin this weekend. You can got to www.spokes.org That is the car club I usually race out of.

 

Hey thanks, great idea. Just read the 6/00 SCC article on this stuff. Q45 came standard with it.

 

Yup.. I've seen a lot of cars that use it to stiffen up the chassis, all with very good results.. I did it on my old Maxima as well (before it got insanely expensive!) and was very happy with the results.. stiffer chassis, better cornering, less road noise through the rocker panels..