Personally I wouldn't want a street driven car to have a full cage with a tube running along the side/top of my head. That would mean at the very least I would want to run tight 5pt harnesses all the time and that would only be an option if my head could not contact the bar.
What I would do, especially considering your height, would be a 6pt bar with low roadrace style front down bars so the car was still easy to get in and out of. You still have rollover/side protection, a place to mount harnesses, chassis stiffening but no chance of busting your head open on a bar.
i am building a 71 camaro and i am considering a 6 pt roll cage also. with no cross bars going across the interior how could you hit your head on anything? if the bars are at the roof line and go down by the a-pillar how would you het the bars? above the window area maybe? and as for rear passenders where would they hit the bar at? surly not behind the drivers head near the roof line? or would it be the roof bar that goes into the trunk on the side? just tryign to under stand. i would like to have a roller protection in my car but i don t wanna give up my back seat passengers.
thanks
I went with the RPM rollbar. certified to 10.0 it was a 1.75 inch chromoly setup. The bar was a 6 point with removable door bars. It was a little pricey but for applications that they have made them for the bolt in feature is very good. You can buy the forward extension for the cage to get an 8.0 cert, allegedly.
Here's my take. Spend the money now or a lot more later. If you're building a street legal race car (which all of theses cars are and don't kid yourself) build it like your ganna do the 150 mph plus. Everybody always says they wont until the cars finished and then have to spend a lot more around a painted car. Then when it's painted you still wont be able to go the full extreme with out harming the paint or apolstry
Yes, it's expensive! What isn't nowadays if you want quality and safety? My customer I'm building the Cuda for said no at first,but then his brother go's. Were building this car with 800 plus hp why wouldn't we put one in. I opened my big mouth and said lets hide it. This cage was the most difficult,time consuming,and challenging peace that i've done. The biggest concerns from the begging were vision out the front and rear windows which never changed because the cage is tucked into the car. 2nd Im 6' 3" and my head won't hit the halo bar or the side down bars. So in the end the customer has full safety no dinging his head and can race it on a track.
In my honest opinion. It's one of those things that are a necessity. If you're building a car of this caliber with this much HP and are GOING to use it on any kind of track or street put a cage in it! NOT a bar! Spend it now and have a peace of mind later.
this may be due to it being late at night, but what part of the cage would you be concerned with hitting your head against? With a seat belt on at least, i dont see what you may come into contact with.
Also I want to thank that crazy ford guy for this thread. I wasn't even considering a cage at all until i read through this. If i wreck it (again), its probably going to be at a high speed on a track i would assume.