Roll Cages
- Thread starter Focuz_Freek_XxX
- Start date
laracroft said:
It depends on what you want to do with the car. I'm willing to give up hauling friends around because I want to feel safe on track. Unfortunately you can't have both. There are roll bars with removable crossbeams, but I think they're still not safe for rear seat passengers because of side impacts.
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And the price isnt bad AT ALL. I've heard from a few companies that it would be somewhere around the ballpark of $600-700 for a cage. So thats good. I want to get one for inside and for the trunk eventually. But right now, I'm still using my backseat and probably will for some time. But I'm not looking to fall off any cliffs anytime soon, so passenger friendly and pretty safe is good. I dont need something that can take a million flips off a revene.
.kcbhiw said:
If I remember correctly it is 1.75x0.12 DOM mild steel.
Here is Autopower's website:
http://www.autopowerindustries.com/Roll_Bars.htm
http://www.autopowerindustries.com/Roll_Bars.htm
All Autopower bars are DOM now since SCCA doesn't allow ERW since Jan of last year.
The only problem is that the mounting feet are so small that if you flip it, the feet can punch through the floor allowing the roof to come down. That can happen since they are mounted to the floor pan and not the rocker boxes. I have pics somewhere of a Rabbit that this happened to. It took even longer to cut the guy out because the cage came down and pinned his legs. I have heard many stories of this happening with Autopower cages, most SCCA techs like to see larger mounting plates (SCCA allows up to 100 sq.in.) under the carpet to help distribute the force.
Britt
The only problem is that the mounting feet are so small that if you flip it, the feet can punch through the floor allowing the roof to come down. That can happen since they are mounted to the floor pan and not the rocker boxes. I have pics somewhere of a Rabbit that this happened to. It took even longer to cut the guy out because the cage came down and pinned his legs. I have heard many stories of this happening with Autopower cages, most SCCA techs like to see larger mounting plates (SCCA allows up to 100 sq.in.) under the carpet to help distribute the force.
Britt
SenorCorwin said:
I have a feeling this was directed at me. Soon my MSP won't be my daily driver, also it's a show car. I do agree that the car should be fast enough to actually need one before having one, but I want sparco harnesses to match my seats. Either way I have a few things to finish up before I start my performance work... about $7000 - $8000 worth of things (dunno) good thing I'm getting a 2nd job soon haha. Then it's thumper, rebuilt motor, and aem standalone for me (as long as everything goes as planned)... unless MAM comes out with something better than the thumper kit by next year.
- :
- 2001 Pro 2.0 LX
looks good. only thing I would do is cut those tiny floor plates off and weld bigger ones on there and get a bigget backing plate.
CChris704 said:
yes, they end up mounting into the back seat. i'll try to find some pics for you.
*edit - here ya go: http://trackaddicts.net/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=21&Itemid=48
miss_steele_msp
Member
- :
- mazdaspeed protege
(rofl) (rofl) (rofl) (rofl) (rofl) (rofl) (rofl) (rofl) (rofl) (rofl) (rofl)laracroft said:
Boston5761
Member
- :
- 03' Familia
SenorCorwin said:
hey its his money.....personally more power to him, im thinking about getting a 4point made for my p5. weld in, but got to get cash first. $600 bucks.
Hey,
I'm not on here much so I'll just make one post to what's been posted since my last reply.
I feel fine with the feet that are on the bar as delivered. I did a lot of research on roll-overs of cars with Autopower 4-point roll bars before I decided to get mine. Looking at worst case, convertibles, the floor would generally be displaced a couple inches at the mounting points, but I never read of one breaking through a non-rusted floor (except for here in this thread).
This is a roll bar, as stated, and of course is only designed for roll-over protection. A roll cage is not safe in a street car since there is too much chance of contacting the bars with your head (without a helmet) in an accident. I wouldn't tell someone they're not fast enough to have a roll bar, since an inexperienced driver has just as much chance of going off track as an experienced driver. There are plenty of pictures of proteges that rolled on the highway with very little distortion to the roof, but if I screw up at 120 at Mid-Ohio with my shoulders held in place with a harness, I still want my bar. Yeah, its a pain in the @ss to have a 2-seater family car and I wind up getting comments about it more often than I expected, but I've seen too many videos and pictures of people who made a mistake, caught a rut in the grass and rolled to feel comfortable on track without it. That makes it worth dealing with in my daily driver.
I assumed the original question of this thread was for Solo 1 where a roll bar is required. I agree that it makes no sense to put a roll bar in a car that will never see a track. If you are just autocrossing, there is no need for a bar, and a cage only helps if the chassis you are putting it in is very floppy, which doesn't apply to Proteges.
I'm not on here much so I'll just make one post to what's been posted since my last reply.
I feel fine with the feet that are on the bar as delivered. I did a lot of research on roll-overs of cars with Autopower 4-point roll bars before I decided to get mine. Looking at worst case, convertibles, the floor would generally be displaced a couple inches at the mounting points, but I never read of one breaking through a non-rusted floor (except for here in this thread).
This is a roll bar, as stated, and of course is only designed for roll-over protection. A roll cage is not safe in a street car since there is too much chance of contacting the bars with your head (without a helmet) in an accident. I wouldn't tell someone they're not fast enough to have a roll bar, since an inexperienced driver has just as much chance of going off track as an experienced driver. There are plenty of pictures of proteges that rolled on the highway with very little distortion to the roof, but if I screw up at 120 at Mid-Ohio with my shoulders held in place with a harness, I still want my bar. Yeah, its a pain in the @ss to have a 2-seater family car and I wind up getting comments about it more often than I expected, but I've seen too many videos and pictures of people who made a mistake, caught a rut in the grass and rolled to feel comfortable on track without it. That makes it worth dealing with in my daily driver.
I assumed the original question of this thread was for Solo 1 where a roll bar is required. I agree that it makes no sense to put a roll bar in a car that will never see a track. If you are just autocrossing, there is no need for a bar, and a cage only helps if the chassis you are putting it in is very floppy, which doesn't apply to Proteges.
CChris704 said:
No, you do NOT want to have racing harnesses without a roll cage (or at least a roll bar).
Why? Well, look at your stock seat belts. They only go over one shoulder. If you get in a roll-over accident, one shoulder will be held down and the body (and more importantly, the neck) is allowed a bit more movement. If both shoulders are secured down and the structural pillars begin to collapse, what do you think is going to happen to you? Your neck becomes a "pillar", your spine compresses, and you at the very least will likely be confined to a wheelchair.
Had you been in the same accident with a regular seat belt, you still would have been injured pretty badly. You would probably have a broken clavicle, maybe a seperated shoulder, but you would have a better chance of walking away rather than being rolled away.
Rogue Pro5 said:
Umm... idk if it's just me or what, but this link looks like a good example of how not to mount a harness. In a flip, spinal compression will ensue, and you'll either be paralyzed or dead. There is plenty of info on this around the forum, and net.
Someone asked if you can mount harnesses safely w/out getting a roll bar or cage etc... and yes you can, but you want to either have a harness bar, or have the harnesses mounted at no less than a 45* angle off your back. Idk if that makes sense or not to you, but just search it and you'll see what I mean. I too have looke into the autopower option and I'm still trying to decide between it and two other options: using a subaru wrx sparco harness bar in the p5, or making my own custom harness bar/roll bar. We'll see...
