[TDR]

Hello,

I don't know if you read my intro thread here;
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/introd...therlands.html

But I'm on the lookout for an upper/front strut (tower) bar for an Alto VX. In my country this would be the MKIV Suzuki Alto (Maruti F10D Engine).

I've seen plenty of these in Japan... and yes, I've sent numerous e-mails to them but I never got any decent answer. Odd... I have no real explanation as to why my inquries were never answered. They were in English.

What I do know is that i'm very impressed with the answers I recieve
here... not only are they in perfect English (way better than mine!)
, but they are so polite....

Anyway... I hope you can help me with this one.

TDR

[im_srini]

Hi TDR,

Yes, SuzukiSport have some mouth-watering stuff for the Alto...


Image: SuzukiSport

But despite innumerable emails, over many years, I've failed to elicit a response from them :(

I contacted a major manufacturer of free-flow exhausts here in India, but was told that they do not manufacture strut braces for the Alto, yet.

My plan now is to have the front brace fabricated by the same shop which tuned my car. I was told a rear brace was unnecessary since the Alto frame has a major structural member underneath the rear seat. That said, I'm planning to fabricate a rear brace anyway, something on the lines of this:


Image: SuzukiSport

I've removed the rear seat in my car & hence the amp has been fixed in an ad-hoc manner at the rear. The plan is to have the rear brace contain provisions to mount the amp, as well as a battery carrier of sorts. Battery relocation to the rear is on the cards, sometime in the future.

I would also like to take this opportunity to invite responses from team-bhp members who've had success with contacting "SuzukiSport" & importing parts from them. In 1996, I happened to be at MRF's "Power-House" (near Sriperumbudur) before the Cotton-City-Rally (or something). The factory rally Esteems being prepared there had a lot of SuzukiSport parts on them, in fact that was when I first heard of "SuzukiSport".

[vikram_d]

You should be able to get one made with ease if you have access to a fabrication shop. All it takes is a 1.5 - 2 inch dia tube with a thick wall and a couple of half inch thick plates. It will work out a lot more cheaper than buying them.

[TDR]

Thanks for the answers!

I'll describe what I did so far on my "quest" for such a 'bar...

- I mailed Suzuki Sport and they admit they had such a 'bar in their program but they had stopped producing it. It took quite some time till they answered, but, finaly, they did. And they did it very elaborately.

- The second 'bar I found was from the Japanese company "GAB". It is the
same one sold through the KC Technica website. I never got any answer
from KC Technica but I did, however, receive an answer from GAB. They
DID make it but now they don't anymore... very polite people, though.

- Found another one at the Japanse "k-takeoff", called a "Strut Tower Bar Straddling". Tried to reach them but, so far, no replies.

There are problably more out there... but they are hard to find as most
Internet sites from Japan are "Japanese-Only". What I did was to let
the free translator service "Babelfish" translate the pages...

So I was and I'm still hoping to order such a 'bar from India.
Afterall... it's probably the place with the most Maruti cars riding around in all of the world! To be honest, an "Alto VX" is more "Maruti" than "Suzuki", imho...

and Vikram_d, you're absolutely right!! Then again, I think one should find
such a shop in India much more easy. People here are a bit lazy, they just
want to buy "ready to fit parts". They don't seem to care about the price tag.

TDR