Thread: how hard to install cage?

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NHRA.COM or NHRASportCompact.COM has drawings along with their rules. They set the standards, most of the other racing sanctions just copy the NHRA rules on safety items. You also need to take a look at roll bar padding, seat mounting, seat belt mounting and window net mounting rules. No matter what the actual ET they will inspect your car for the higher standard if you have a cage in it. For example, you will need a window net with a cage.

ahhh you lucky man livin out west racing all year right? haha man i dont even know that the track out here can hold yet. doesnt matter to me im putting the SF connectors and cage in a few months then i get to mess with my motor and trans all winter for next summer. but i do get tired of seeing stock vettes and cobras run...

"For example, you will need a window net with a cage."

John, this is not necessarily true. You can have a cage in any car, no matter if it runs 25 second et's, but a net is not required until the cage is mandatory....10.99 with an altered floor (in excess of 4 square feet) or altered firewall (in excess of 1 square foot) and 9.99 with an unaltered floor and firewall.

at milan i believe anything under a 11.49 requires a window net

Originally Posted by muteboy49

ahhh you lucky man livin out west racing all year right? haha man i dont even know that the track out here can hold yet. doesnt matter to me im putting the SF connectors and cage in a few months then i get to mess with my motor and trans all winter for next summer. but i do get tired of seeing stock vettes and cobras run...

We are going to need to get the terminology correct.....what you are considering installing is an 8-point roll bar, not a cage. A cage has another main hoop that installs at the windshield and halo bars that connect the hoops along the roof of the car.

yeah but for some reason everyone around here calls it a cage lol.
ok ill be putting in the SF connectors and rollbar in a few months

Originally Posted by muteboy49

at milan i believe anything under a 11.49 requires a window net

If they are requiring that, then they should be ashamed of themselves. It is not in the rulebook.

hmm i could be wrong. im almost positive thats what the track rules are though

Originally Posted by John Palmer

NHRA.COM or NHRASportCompact.COM has drawings along with their rules. They set the standards, most of the other racing sanctions just copy the NHRA rules on safety items. You also need to take a look at roll bar padding, seat mounting, seat belt mounting and window net mounting rules. No matter what the actual ET they will inspect your car for the higher standard if you have a cage in it. For example, you will need a window net with a cage.

As far as mounting and padding, you must have missed my link to the paper I wrote on roll bar installation. I wrote it for a 5-point bar, but all you have to do is add a door bar on the passenger side and subframe connector bars on each side and you have an 8-point roll bar.....
http://streetmachinesoftablerock.com...opic.php?t=217

Richard, I'm sure you are correct, but it's the local tech inspector(s) we all have to deal with at the events. We run a 11.90 Index VW which has run a quickest run of 11.11. Not only do the inspectors require a net in our chromoly caged car but they also request/require that we run with arm restaints since we have a 1960 Bug with an original "cloth sunroof". Don't get me wrong, I really appreciate that they are not selling safety gear for profit, just trying to lookout for us to have racing fun and to do it safely. I think that racers sometimes don't understand the inspectors have a tough job.

yeah i agree im sure the inspectors at the track around here get hassled every time theyre open. or they get punched in the face however thats another story lol

"but it's the local tech inspector(s) we all have to deal with at the events."

Point well-taken John. Thanks.

oh yeah BTW punching a inspector in the face is not only stupider than crap but itll get you a 3 year banishment.... just throwin it out there ...
and no it wasnt me

muteboy: We already did the subframe connectors in my kids Capri, and they are really easy. There are two styles, weld in and bolt in, we went for the weld in, because we just felt they had to be stronger by the nature of being welded in.

After we were done it is amazing how much they stiffen the unibody. When we jack up one corner of the front, the entire car lifts straight up now. Before, it would twist like a pretzel. We also welded in "battle boxes" to reinforce the control arm boxes. Fox Mustangs are notorious for tearing these loose when you start hammering them off the line, especially with HP and slicks. They were a real bear to install, to get them right, and do the welding up in that little hole, upside down. I didn't do it, my kid did, but he was cussing the whole time.

As for the thing about making a second weld if you screw up the first one on the roll bar, tech can answer that better, but I think they just want to see an unground weld, so you could probably do that. But like he said, have a pro welder do the final welds, not only will you get turned away if they are not right, but your very life depends on it.

A lot of people think mid 11's isn't quick.........it is, and lots of things can happen at those speeds'



Don

built correctly, a properly designed and installed roll cage will stiffen up the car and take an amazing amount of flex out of a demon like you describe--10 sec 1/4, wow!! give it lots of looking and thinking and you can do it