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Roll cages

ORIGINAL: John Sims Another thing to consider is some insurers don't like cages and will either load your premium or not insure you. I assume it is because they think you feel safe you are more likely to have an accident.
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I think its more likely to do with the fact that an impact at even very low speeds could see the driver 'nut' the cage and end up living the rest of his life considerbly disabled. i.e a massive 3rd party pay out. I can vouch for the amount of trouble you have to go through to get a car with a cage insured, I have found that only Mannings will touch my car with all of its mods. I certainly couldnt entertain the idea of having a caged car as my daily driver, the getting in and out is just sucha PITA that I'd end up setting fire to the car after a week!
 
I haven't had a problem insuring my half cage, didn't seem to load my premium at all, so I'm very much of the opinion that Lali is correct about head injuries from the cage itself. For me this has been the best compromise, I can bolt in front extensions to the cage if I want them at a later date (and doing it at the trackday would solve the insurance issue) and it gives me a sturdy location to mount the harness to. Plus I can only just get out of the car in a garage without the door bars...
 
My original post was me thinking along the line of just a bolted in 1/2 cage as I thought that had been mentioned as a group purchase some months ago but I hadn't realised the possible insurance issue. I do have a sunroof fitted ! Does the fitment alter the stiffness of the car ?
 
Not really, although people will post soon to contradict me. The fact remains though that you only 'stiffen' a car by attaching the structure to the suspension mounting points and then spreading the load. Most 944s have a sunroof, so Id expect most cages to accomodate this.
 
ISTR talking to RollCentre about the Sunroof thing and he said something about the car they used as a base for a welded in cage was a non-sunroof car. However the guy didn't think it was much of an issue just move things around slightly. BTW he advised that a pre-notched cage is not a great idea as all shells are not identical, you may have to adjust a little to get the bars as close as possible to the chassis (which should always be done with a proper race cage). Therefore the Roll Centre weld in kit is not pre-notched, but is very cheap. Thing is I looked in detail at all the options a few months ago and when you got down to it a welded in solution fully fitted costs about the same by any of the vendors, about £1500 or so. You can weld yourself or get a mate to do it but I wanted something fully certified for competition use.
 
I was offered an FIA international weld in fitted for £400 (£100 for the cage and £300 for fitting). The downside was that the bodyshop had to cut the roof off my car in order to fit it, as itd been used already... [:D]
 
Bolt in half cages are for looks only.....there are NO benefits (except if you get a camera mount for it). If you are serious about a track car a weld in 6 point cage is the only way to go. Custom cages have an excellent reputation and produce cages for top race teams (touring cars, WRC etc.). One thing of note even if they fit the cage for you I'm pretty sure you have to give them a ready stripped car and then you will have to rebuild it afterwards.......it is a big job.
 
There are benefits. Front corner crushing cant be prevented of course, but the whole roof is strengthened (hopefully protecting your head, depending on the model) and the rear section adds a good deal to the bodys ability to withstand side impacts. Of course, a weld-in six point/eight point cage will certainly not add the benefit that most people seem to expect. In fact, by stiffening up the cabin area youre giving the suspension loads a far smaller area over which to be absorbed. This wont positively affect the handling but it will affect the monocoques longevity. Where your rules and regs do allow suspension tie-ins, you have to weigh up the benefit of secure suspension mounts, against the loss of body deformation: exactly as you do when you seam weld the front chassis rails and mounts (and cover them in seam sealer hoping no one will notice). You end up with a car that barely gives when you hit something that is equally resistant. When this happens its your insides that give.....
 
I stand by my statement re no benefit other than as a camera stand.....specific to bolt in cages. I'd dispute the addition of crash protection.........it is only held in place with bolts afterall. It will affect the handling in an unpredictable fashion. It will upset the wieght distribution of the car. I'm pretty sure there are no race series where bolt in half cages meet regs.........IMHO they are pointless
 
Much depends on the design of course; and even more on the fitting. In some lightened cars, mine for example, it restores the balance lost due to so much weight being removed from behind the centre line. If you look at pictures of a national rear hoop fitted into a 944, alongside profile pictures of the car; you can see why it will provide a reasonable amount of protection. I have seen scores of crashed 944s (perhaps hundreds) and reassuringly few have rolled. Of those that have, and where the B pillar area has moved, whichd have been resisted by a rear hoop, I dont recall seeing any which have crushed the A pillar enough to affect the driver. I understand that the front section does more than reinforce the A pillar, but Im confident that its omission does not make the rear section useless.
 
There is a guy racing an S2 in the PCGB championship this year using a bolt in cage. They are approved as the MSA minimum requirements are pretty minimal + for PCGB you have to have door bars. Some of the *other* arguments well we have been here before.
 
Some interesting thoughts from Kevin Eacock in this month's PP - interviewed by Paul F in the 968 register bit "....My personal thought is that a half-cage is of no use at all except for cosmetic effect.." I'm not going to type out the whole article - you'll just have to join the club to read it [;)]
 
Kevin has some strong views and I seldom disagree, but Im not sure about this. I do know what Kevin is talking about here though (large impacts, like the racer that hit the wall at Silverstone at 100mph+), and I agree. Kevin only tends to see 10/10ths use though and everything else to him is just f***ing about.[:D] I believe that he is equally dismissive of complete bolt-in SD cages: hence his refusal to fit them to proper competition cars...
 
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