Roll Cage vs Roll bar? It's suspension if your suspension doesn't keep you RSD

[Tom.A]

I say put one in. If you don't like you can always cut it out.
I have a 10 point cage in my chevelle (no knee knocker bar under the dash).
It is 1.75" DOM .120 wall and the halo bar is tucked high and nice. The cage is through floor pan and tied to the frame. The Kirkey seats are a pain to get in and out of but they sit nice and low. I feel secure when strapped in with 5 pt belts. Here are a few pictures..it is a little slim on creature comforts and style points



I have kids but only my son (8 yrs old) has rode with me as my daughter is younger and not big enough. I have to use a bottom booster seat for my boy and shorten up the harness for him. If I had a back seat and no cage I am not sure I would feel comfortable with my kids back there anyway.

After all that is it a pain? Yes. I drove it Today and it is a pain to get in and out off. The 5 pt harness is a bigger pain imo. You can't have them pulled down all the way and make safe lane change on the freeway. I have thought about making the down bar with a curve, change seats and add 3 point seat belts as option for street driving. I only have one hobby car at the present time so having a track only car is not worth it for me. I want to get the max out of my $$ and time. Like said earlier there will be pros and cons with a cage in a street car. You are building a nice car so I would do a min of a 6 point

[onevoice]

Originally Posted by Vegas69

You really don't know what a missile you are building. That goes for you to Ron. Believe me, 700hp will motivate anything down the straightaway in a big way. I've run a couple road courses with speeds pushing 140, the thought crosses your mind! And it does and will happen to someone in this community, eventually. I'm not trying to be a downer, I just think safety is vastly under thought in this community.

This is the absolute truth.

Some will say I am overreacting, and that you shouldn't have to meet certain safety standards, but 500+HP and open track events is a big accident waiting to happen. In fact they have already happened, but you just never see the publicity. Two people died at Silver State a couple of years ago, someone died at the Spectre hillclimb 2 years ago. In the past couple of years, I have noted deaths at driver training events, and open track events, and there are many, many, more accidents and deaths. There have been several off track excursions at PT RTTX events that could have been much worse. We as a group have been lucky, that luck won't hold out forever. I have raced, and I have seen many balled up racecars hauled away, and broken people taken to the hospital.

If you are going out on a big track, someday you will have an accident. Prepare for it.

Everyone makes the decision to take the risks that are acceptable to them, but use some sense and prepare for the danger. A typical PT car nowdays has more HP and less safety equipment than a nascar or TransAm car from the 60's. Look up the life expectancy of a driver back then, it wasn't much.

I am an advocate for building a racecar from the start. There are many classes of racing you can get into for a fraction of a top end PT car. Sure it is cool to have a streetable race car, but in the end, it will do neither very well. And racing just flat tears up equipment, don't do it if you are using your pride and joy that you poured years of labor and every last cent into.

This is what you need to be able to walk away from, and bear in mind that a vintage car like this was probably lucky to have 450hp

[Blake Foster]

I elected to put a full cage in my Nova, knowing it would see track time and some street driving.
it is not a "LEGAL" anything cage, I used 1.57 x .095 as per scca specs. the only part that is not legal are the door bars besause legal bars make it impossible to get in and out. so my door bars are low whih provide some additional side impact safety as well as triangulation of the front down tube and main hoop. there is NO WAY you can even get in the back seat and I never intended to have anyone in the back so who cares.
I think the picture in the above post sayes it all!!!
my nova has 430 hp to the rear wheels and it is crazy how fast you get going. I am with Todd 700 hp will be fast on a long straight expect to see 150-160 mph!! you think that if you lost the brakes heaven forbid the original sheet metal will hold up? **** happens as they say. Plan for the worst, hope for the best. One other thing I did was to use approved FIA race seats. and it is surprising how comfortable they are and how tight they hold you in. another big benifet is that they sit you as low as possible as the bottom of the seat is only 1" thick and the seat tracks are another 1" so they give the max head room.
also use roll bar padding!!

[garickman]

Originally Posted by wiedemab

So - I'll ask a dumb question. I've heard this mentioned several times. People are worried about their head impacting the front down-bars. I understand the concern, but if not for the down-bars - - if your head is thrust in that direction wouldn't it hit the A-pillar or the steel dash. I know the cage down-bar is much more rigid than the dash and the A-pillar, but my head (and I'm pretty hard-headed!!) is still the softer of the group.

I'm wrestling with this for a future project as well. I plan to have a 5-pt harness setup, but the other factor is if you wear a harness without a Head and Neck Restraint you are asking for trouble too.

It's all a calculated risk, I suppose. Please post what your decision is what your logic was behind it. It may help me make a decision.

Thanks

I always hear the same argument about a vehicles driver or passengers hitting thier head on a street driven car with a roll bar or roll cage. I don't know squat about roll cages but I have been on the scene of several hundred accidents including a couple dozen fatalities. The fact of the matter is that no one accident is the same and no one accident is predictable. There is a possibility that a vehicles occupants may sustain injuries because of roll cage installation, but there is also the same possibility that a vehicle occupants may have avoided major injuries because of a roll cage installation. It's a 50/50 crap shoot on what type of injuries one may or may not receive in a vehicle accident.

[ironworks]

It would really suck to have some super bad ass cage in your street car and get killed in a fender bender because you busted your skull against the rollcage in the car. If your going to have a full cage in your car you better have full seat belts you use everytime so your melon does not get smashed against a really hard rollbar.

That is what scares me about rollcages in a street cars. Plus you never see a street car with a rollcage with any padding on the bars, because the padding is ugly. It wont be as ugly as brain matter sprayed all over you Recaro's.

Rodger

[intocarss]

Originally Posted by Ron in SoCal

. HANS is a whole 'nother level up, welcomed on track.

If I ever build a track only car, it'll have a sanctioning body compliant cage and I'll strongly consider a HANS system.

Consider it?? I'm gona slap you ! A racing seat, 5 point harness and a head and neck restraint system should be MANDATORY FOR EVERYONE ON A RACE TRACK,, PERIOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[garickman]

Originally Posted by ironworks

It would really suck to have some super bad ass cage in your street car and get killed in a fender bender because you busted your skull against the rollcage in the car. Rodger

That would suck! But on the flip side of the coin I'll bet someone would be thankful for that super bad ass roll cage if they were doing 90MPH on the freeway, got a blow out, over corrected and hit the concrete median and rolled 4 or 5 times. Then crawl out the window, look at what's left of thier mangled car and san say "damn I sould be dead right now." Stranger things have happened.

[Sieg]

Realistically..........IMO

Full cages = helmet, shoulder harnesses, and padded bars so the helmet isn't compromised. Practical, no, logical, yes.

150 mph in a timed competitive event = full approved cage, seat, 5 point harness, helmet, fire suit, etc. Especially on a public road event.

You can yard-sale a high hp car in a matter of milli-seconds.

[Vegas69]

That's the problem with pro touring and racing. Do you want a safe street car or race car? You can't have both.

[Flash68]

I'll take a cage over no cage anyway. One reason I chose the car I found that already had a pretty good one.

Most of the pro touring cars around here aren't driven nearly as much on the street as people think and lead on. The real danger is on the track, not a 20 mph accident cruising once a month.

Cage that bad boy real good Torino Man. You'll end up more on the track than on the street with that thing. You got plenty of street cars in your stable from what I can tell.