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Anyone ever use a removable / bolt-in roll cage?


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Posted

Trying to decide if I want to put a roll cage in the GT-R... I still use it as a street car... more so than a track car. But, I want the safety of the roll cage/harness setup when on the track. Has anybody ever done a roll cage that's removable/bolts into place? I don't want to drive around with a roll cage on the street (although driving with a helmet all the time might be kind of fun... lol). Also, the kids do ride in the back seats, so I can't have a bar back there all the time. I wouldn't mind having to spend an hour or two each night before a track event putting in a cage. I'm in South Florida, so if anybody knows of any local shops that might be able to do this, please let me know.

Posted

Not worth tearing up the car IMO...and harnesses arent all that safe without some kind of roll protection.

Posted

You could take a bolt in roll bar out, but taking the interior apart is the pain.

Posted

Probably somewhere between 5-10 events per year.

 

That mustang incident was insane! I guess bolt in cages aren't such a hot idea.

 

Man, what a dilemma! I want to be as safe as possible on the track, but I don't want to compromise street safety by driving around with a cage. Maybe I really will just put in a full cage and drive with my HANS, harness, and helmet all the time on the street (and not drive the kids around in the GT-R anymore).

 

What do other people do with their cage on the street? Just drive around with a cage, no helmet, and hope that their egg doesn't crack open on the hard cage tubing in an accident?

Posted

You could always just do a 4-point roll BAR instead of a cage. Would only have to take out the back interior, its better than nothing, you are MUCH less likely to hit your head on it, no need for a helmet/hans while street driving, cheaper than a full cage....

Posted

I didn't listen when more experienced track-rats told me it is infinitely cheaper, and safer, to have a dedicated track car, than try to keep a street car dual purpose. After a few years banging my head against the wall and spending a fortune screwing up my street car, I finally came to my senses.

Posted

That's the main concern, increased chance of injury in more typical accidents on the street versus increased safety in the event of a much more rare type of accident - rollover. There has been a lot of discussion about this in the Rennlist (Porsche) forums with strong points being made for either case. I suggest that you research this topic thoroughly and then make an informed decision for yourself.

 

That's why I have two vehicles, a street S2000 and a track Miata.

 

While bolt-in cages can be designed properly (and not punch through the floor), you will likely wind up hacking the interior of your beautiful car to accommodate it.

Posted

 

That's why I have two vehicles, a street S2000 and a track Miata.

 

 

This

 

You have a GT-R, if you are serious about the track, spend the money on a safe car for your family, not a rig to dual purpose your race car.

  • 2 weeks later...
Posted

any cage is only as strong as the part(s) of the car it connects to. Nothing inherently wrong with bolt-in...

Posted

After hearing you guys talk about how unsafe a full roll cage is on the street, that changed my plans. My Sentra is a dual-purpose car (daily driving and HPDE), and I want cage protection as well. I guess I'll first go with a roll bar first, and then add the front sections later when I'm ready to compete. And besides, I'm broke right now, so a roll bar is economic for now .

Posted

I was thinking of going with a bolt in rollcage until I saw what was offered for my car. I didn't like the way that it attached to the chassis and the geometry of the bars. I also didn't want a full cage for the obvious safety risks of street driving with scaffolding in the car. I decided on a half cage:

 

3825058120_feded4e3f7_b.jpg

 

3825060062_07958a7879_b.jpg

Posted
I was thinking of going with a bolt in rollcage until I saw what was offered for my car. I didn't like the way that it attached to the chassis and the geometry of the bars. I also didn't want a full cage for the obvious safety risks of street driving with scaffolding in the car. I decided on a half cage:

 

3825058120_feded4e3f7_b.jpg

 

3825060062_07958a7879_b.jpg

 

Props for the door bars

  • Members
Posted

I'm running a bolt in cage from autopower, the car is set up for H2 and the cage is legal per ccr. It would be a pain in the you know what to bolt and unbolt the cage after an event , besides if you want the car for the street/family you don't want to take the interior apart.

 

If you are running hpde stay with all your oem safety devices. Don't mix safety devices cause you can get really hurt. Either go full race or stay oem. Besides I think using your daily driver to do hpde besides a couple of times a year is really not a good idea, specially if repairs are expensive. I saw it first hand in Buttomwillow a couple of months ago, guy rolls in with a very nice civik si and left with only the memories . The only reason he survived is because his car was completely oem.

  • 2 weeks later...
Posted

My .02

Well.. this is a touchy subject depending on who you talk to.

First of all, there is no way to know that if that blue mustang that flipped, if it had a weld in cage, that the same thing might not have happened.

 

i have read about this subject on every board possible, and in the end, you just have to make up your own mind.

 

I have a 00 Mustang that is not my dd, although, I do drive it to events and DE's.

 

I went with Autopower road race 4pt. with removable diagonal and harness bar.

 

It takes about 3 min. to take the bars out.

 

I feel it meets all my needs at this time. I do at least 6 events per year, this year I did 8 iirc.

 

Here's a few pics:

IMG_0920.jpg

 

IMG_0931.jpg

Posted

As far as I can tell, the failure in the flipped Mustang was due to the mounting location of the bar. In the S197 chassis, the Autopower bar's main hoop lands right in the corner of the rear footwell, approximately equidistant to the sill on the outside and the rear seat pedestal to the rear. Unfortunately, the main hoop pad lands right on the floorpan, which is thin sheetmetal, IIRC around 16ga. When the car pole-vaulted onto its roof, that put all the weight of the car, plus the extra load from the impact directly downward on the main hoop, which simply punched through the floorpan. I've seen pix of the aftermath, and you can clearly see where the floorpan tore out and remained attached to the pad. This is not to say that a bolt-in rollbar will not provide additional protection, but only in the case where the existing factory safety structure is in place and uncompromised. That particular chassis started as a Roush Trak Pack Mustang, and the original owner crashed it pretty hard. It was then sold, rebuilt, and put back on the track. A couple of other items to note about that particular crash. The rollbar in question was a "street" model, without harness bar or diagonal brace, AND the seats were not a fixed-back design. I have no evidence to support my opinion, but I believe that the OE crash structure was compromised, either in the original crash, and/or when the car was gutted to lighten it. I've seen other crashed S197 chassis, and none of them pancaked like that. Simply having a daigonal and harness bar in the bar design obviously wouldn't have kept the bar from punching through the floor, but that makes one wonder what other shortcuts were taken.

 

One thing to keep in mind vis-a-vis safety, is that you need to have a properly engineered "system" approach. OE crash bars, plus stock seats, plus 3-point belts, plus airbags makes a reasonably well engineered solution to keeping you safe in the event of a crash. A full cage, plus containment seat, plus racing harnesses, plus HANS-type device, plus helmet also makes a reasonably engineered solution. Mixing the two, unfortunately, really doesn't make anything better, generally only worse.

 

This is NOT to say that a back-half cage is a bad idea, but it needs to be approached with some forethought.

 

Also, when planning on the safety upgrades, READ the competition section of the GCR (LINK). While it's only specifically called out in the seat-belt/harness section of the HPDE portion, it's a pretty good idea to make sure that any safety-related mods to the car are fully compliant with the corresponding competition section.

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