manny_g

would like to stiffen the chassis some more, would the roll bar help? does anyone know how much it weighs and is it difficult to install. any feed back greatly appreciated...other comments welcome as well.

deepblue

I think I commented on your car before, the color is nothing short of stunning.

The Tequipment bar mounts on the front and rear seat belt mounts, I would imagine other vendors version that bolts to the rear shock mounts would provide more chassis stiffening.

The install isnt so much difficult but you have to be *extremely* careful installing you can scratch interior, break windshield etc. Most people have had difficulty getting the bolts in the front mounts, using a ratcheting tie down helps "squeeze" the bars together for fit.

TT Gasman

Use extreme caution during the install, there have been several threads and even a youtube video on the subject.

manny_g

thank you for your original comment...do you think a rear strut brace will provide better stiffening than the roll bar?

Joe Weinstein

My opinions: (and I have lots of them)

1 - Neither of them will make a whit of stiffness difference.

2 - There is already too much bulkhead metal between the shock
towers in a 996tt to need any sort of brace.

3 - There is no chance that a rollbar will make appreciable stiffness
either, unless it's welded in and triangulated.

4 - You probably have zero need to stiffen the chassis. Unless you
are already racing hard enough that you are already required to
have a rollbar, there are a raft of other more important changes
you would want to make first to your car for better handling.

Tell us the circumstances where you think you need the car stiffer,
and the symptoms you feel that you attribute to a 996tt having a
loose chassis. I'll bet we can save you some money, and make you
happier, with a better car.
Regards,
Joe Weinstein

deepblue

I think that a strut brace would provide more stiffening than the Tequipment bar, however, some of the more popular shock tower mounted roll bars would provide close or the same stiffness and provide roll over protection and a place to mount harnesses, cameras etc for track days.

DAS is one of the more popular models and gives more room to move the seat fore and aft.

https://www.dassport.com/store/produ...-1998-to-%2709

I had both the tequipment bar and the DAS, the DAS was more solid, shock mounted, easier to install and more accepted as a safety device.

That being said, the 996 chassis is already very stiff, probably one of the more rigid cars I have owned. You wont find many that sell strut braces for the 996 unlike most other cars. Can I ask why you are trying to strenght the chassis?

Land Jet

Manny, are you doing this for the track? If not, we who do track have been warned that a roll bar in a street car without a helmet becomes a source of head injuries. Think about this.

TT Surgeon

It's a PIA, very easy to strip the front two bolts. Ask me how I know.....

deepblue

The seat belt retaining bolts at the base of the front seats? That would be some serious suckage :-(

manny_g

guys thanks for all of the comments. my reason for asking is an attempt to minimize some of the noise and rattle when driving over rough/irregular roads.

Marks951

It might be better to find the source of the rattles and tighten, insulate, or pad the offending items. The harness bar might just add to any rattles, sqeaks, or noises.

Joe Weinstein

yep, if a roll bar is not welded in, it can develop squeaks at the base, and can just start
torquing wherever else it's mounted to. I'm glad you posted the reasons, so we could
prevent a real PITA and useless and/or dangerous add-on. Have an agile friend as a
passenger to crawl around and find where the noises are coming from, and deal with
them one by one.

Hoosier_Daddy

Hi Larry. Could you provide a little detail on what you've been told. The reason I ask is that if you are in any of the normal high back Porsche factory seats or the Euro GT3 units, belted in properly, I am not sure I see where a Porsche Roll Bar would pose a problem with safety. Thanks.

Land Jet

This is more of a street car problem with regular lap belt. In an accident the body can flail around even with a seat belt on, so with no helmet, likelihood of head injury is greater. Not saying it's going to happen, just that it could. We were told this in safety meetings at our local PCA DE events.

If you have and use harnesses in your car, then I think the probability is much lower.

buzztt

can you describe the rattles/noises and where they are coming from

it would make for a good thread, i have searched before and couldnt find a thread detailing common rattles and the appropriate fixes