Roll Cage Question

[Camaricopa]

I wanted to verify that the "removable type" Dual Bars for the Drivers door and Single Bar for the pasenger door are acceptable based on the below section of the CC and R's regarding Roll Cages

15.6.3 Installation
The cage may be removable or may be permanently welded, or any combination
thereof, providing that all aspects of the cage meet these rules.

Thanks in Advance for the clarification

[jroc]

Do you have a pic of what youre trying to do? I.e. is there a prefabbed bolt in system for your car?

On the miata, theres something like this.

http://www.bossfrog.biz/Miata_Performance.html

The door bars (2nd item listed) have caught my attention, but not sure about the legality of them per the rules. Looks like they have two bars, but I question the mounting since the ccr's state 3 bolts per mount, these only have 2. Could someone clarify for me as well?

[Camaricopa]

This is a cage that is already in a car I am looking at purchasing. The current owner never actually competed in it and does not have any log books from the former owner who he said did compete locally in it. Just needing to know if this will be good to go or I need to figure adding a legel cage into the total price.

Taking the Camaro to that level has crossed my mind (continually) but rational thinking has won over....but it was a close battle

[SHOboy]

Originally Posted by Camaricopa

This is a cage that is already in a car I am looking at purchasing. The current owner never actually competed in it and does not have any log books from the former owner who he said did compete locally in it. Just needing to know if this will be good to go or I need to figure adding a legel cage into the total price.

Do you know what organization it competed in? Some organizations will pass things that others won't. There have been a number of cases where other organizations have passed things that NASA wouldn't, so you're right to not assume it will pass tech with NASA.

The section from the CCRs that you quoted applies to bolt-in cages, and for a proper bolt-in cage the door bars can be unbolted, but it's not a quick operation. There are also "drop-in"-type removable door bars and I've never seen those used in road race competition. I've seen them in drag cars, but not road race cars. Drag-race safety tech is very different from road race safety tech.

Just my dos centavos.

[Junior]

As long as the "bolt in" section is as strong or stronger than the original tube than you should be fine. The bolt in section should have a minimum of two grade 8 bolts holding it together.

[Camaricopa]

I have learned that it is the Autopower Bolt In cage that is still currently speced in for this car with SCCA.

It has ran with ASA and SCCA in the past.

I suppose at this point the worst(or best) thing would be that "junior" could weld in some Door Bars .

[MattS]

I suggest you get the car over to Junior or Kent at Precision Chassis and have them take a look at it. They can then recommend any modifications. I HIGHLY suggest doing a fully welded in roll cage. However, if you are buying a Spec RX-7 and trying to keep the costs down, this may be impractical. At a minimum, you should have the existing bolt-in cage welded in, at least at the plate to the body mounts. I am sure you have seen the videos of bolt in cages going through the floor pan of the car. Welding the plates in place will help prevent this from occurring. Just my two cents...

[944-spec#94]

If you are buying a car with a cage and it does not have a log book you may want to have it teched by NASA inspector as part of pre-purchase. Better to know if you have NASA race legal car before you buy rather than taking the owners word for it. Know what you are buying.

BTW.. if all is good except for door bars they can be an easy fix. Just bending up and welding in a a set. BTW.. depending on the car and you body shape you may find the need to adjust them anyway.

Also for racing with HANS the position for the cross bar for shoulder harness is critical. Too high or too low is problematic when using a HANS. This may require you to install a new cross bar. This is not really fault, but a comproise if the PO was 6" 5" or 5' 2". Also the PO's seat may not work for you. Again you could be larger or smaller and it may not work. I would always expect that you may need to make seating adjustments to be comfortable in a new race car. That might mean new seat. I have driven a many 944's over the years and never found one as comfortable as mine. Then again I set-up my car for me so that is really to be expected.

[SHOboy]

Originally Posted by 944-spec#94

Also for racing with HANS the position for the cross bar for shoulder harness is critical. Too high or too low is problematic when using a HANS. This may require you to install a new cross bar. This is not really fault, but a comproise if the PO was 6" 5" or 5' 2". Also the PO's seat may not work for you. Again you could be larger or smaller and it may not work. I would always expect that you may need to make seating adjustments to be comfortable in a new race car. That might mean new seat. I have driven a many 944's over the years and never found one as comfortable as mine. Then again I set-up my car for me so that is really to be expected.

For example, the harness bar in the "spec" AutoPower cage in a Spec-7 RX-7 is very, very low. We had to put in another one to pass tech.

[MeandtheZ]

Originally Posted by MattS

I suggest you get the car over to Junior or Kent at Precision Chassis and have them take a look at it. They can then recommend any modifications. I HIGHLY suggest doing a fully welded in roll cage. However, if you are buying a Spec RX-7 and trying to keep the costs down, this may be impractical. At a minimum, you should have the existing bolt-in cage welded in, at least at the plate to the body mounts. I am sure you have seen the videos of bolt in cages going through the floor pan of the car. Welding the plates in place will help prevent this from occurring. Just my two cents...

Junior FTW. He does amazing work!