Sub-frame connectors... Please build them correctly!
Common sense in this instance doesn't have the background in structural engineering methods needed to perform an adequate analysis on the situation. If common sense could get someone through a complete stress/strain analysis on a structure as complicated as a modified car chassis then the world would be a very different place.
If you'd like to start calling people wrong, perhaps you should provide actual data. I don't think the answer is as clear cut as you would like to think. Welding to the floor provides obvious benefits, but when you start comparing different wall thicknesses, different sized gusset plates, different cross sectional areas, and welds that contain two very different gauge thicknesses, I don't think "common sense" considers enough variables.
The "best" way is the way that you can get it done. Any subframe connector is better than none, and I'd hazard a guess that 99% of the people on here won't ever push their cars hard enough to begin to be able to tell the difference between the two different types of connectors, assuming there's a significant difference to begin with. Running around on BFG T/A's certainly won't tell you. Take a look at the cars running at the autocross and on the road race tracks- what kind of connectors to they have? The hotchkis challenger? Yeah, it uses hotchkis subframe connectors, which are tubular and not welded to the floor. The Hotchkis taxi? Yeah, same non-floor tied connectors.
Are you that fast? Does it matter?
Common sense in this instance doesn't have the background in structural engineering methods needed to perform an adequate analysis on the situation. If common sense could get someone through a complete stress/strain analysis on a structure as complicated as a modified car chassis then the world would be a very different place.
If you'd like to start calling people wrong, perhaps you should provide actual data. I don't think the answer is as clear cut as you would like to think. Welding to the floor provides obvious benefits, but when you start comparing different wall thicknesses, different sized gusset plates, different cross sectional areas, and welds that contain two very different gauge thicknesses, I don't think "common sense" considers enough variables.
The "best" way is the way that you can get it done. Any subframe connector is better than none, and I'd hazard a guess that 99% of the people on here won't ever push their cars hard enough to begin to be able to tell the difference between the two different types of connectors, assuming there's a significant difference to begin with. Running around on BFG T/A's certainly won't tell you. Take a look at the cars running at the autocross and on the road race tracks- what kind of connectors to they have? The hotchkis challenger? Yeah, it uses hotchkis subframe connectors, which are tubular and not welded to the floor. The Hotchkis taxi? Yeah, same non-floor tied connectors.
Are you that fast? Does it matter?
