Quote:
Originally Posted by jwd
I can lift any corner of my car without any changes in panel gaps or the way the doors close. Enough said.  |
Well... NOT enough said.
I did not go through the effort to examine the drawings in detail, post shots of my car and write up the technical differences to start a pissing contest. In fact I went out of my way to qualify my remarks by saying the drawings may be incomplete and I wasn't trying to make smart a$$ comments. None of my comments were/are derogatory to H'cane or it's customers. Or any OTHER mfgrs products on this board-ever.
I joined this thread because I saw several posts/threads like the "Why Hurricane?" thread which have had overwhelmingly positive comment. So this thread allowed me to see what all the glory was about.
Then I realized the surprising differences. Now I'm pleased that a company rescued a failing replica business and gave us all an affordable additional choice when Cobra shopping. We all have different budgets, standards and ideas about what these cars should be to please us.
But your point about jacking a corner (on your car) surprises me greatly because I just went back and studied the first drawing of Drivin's post. The door hinge post when viewed from this angle does not appear to be a post at all. Looks like a flat plate welded to a short vertical tube. And the bottom edge is attached to the dropped foot tray-which has no support structure to the outrigger tubes aft of it! And the rear latch-that just mystifies me.
The cowl bar is placed atop this partial post and perimeter welded (I hope) in place. No gussets or support structure. If your car is not stressed by racing or accident then you can sleep soundly at night. Jacking a corner doesn't prove squat-virtually every mfgr who's been a commercial success can do that parlor trick. Go 25 years without stress cracks in a car that's not a lawn queen and I'll be a little more impressed.
I know you own it already and could care less but I urge those shopping to visit the ERA site and look for the points I brought out here. ERA uses tube-in-tube, perimeter butted tigs on Z-cuts and gussets throughout. If the H'cane will support your needs-by all means own it.
Which leads to my final point. Putnam, Pete and Phil did this design 25+ years ago-Hurricane wasn't even a
gleam then. They had only to view the best of all the current mfgrs chassis like JBL, FFR, KMP and ERA to have a product that's a first class effort. Seems like some corners were cut for expediency. Lot of guys seem preoccupied with the curve here and the flair there and which way the butt points for 'originality'. I'm sure there are many guys who own/crave H'canes but I wonder if they've seen what the top competition has been turning out.