Ok, so my car, 2010 Evo X GSR, is still a daily driver. But after next summer it will have had a fully built motor and be pushing almost 500hp.

I take it to the road course tracks all year long (except for snowy winter days) with NASA club driving and use racing slick tires to put down faster and faster times.

After seeing a video many of you have see, of a tire blowout resulting in a rollover crash, and a Porsche gt3 here at the local track rolling over a few times...

both cars had rollcages, welded ones. So....

do i need one?

Is there a way to get one and still use the car as a DD?

thanks!

 

the question is not do you NEED one, but do you WANT one. If you decide to put a cage in that pretty much throws out any kind of "daily driving" aspect and makes it strictly a track car. Sure it will help you survive a roll over at the track but get into an accident on the street and you could die if you bumped your head on the cage (knock on wood for both situations)

 

I didn't realize there was such a risk in DD with a rollcage...

can you really crack you head on it that easy?

 

You can use it as a DD with a rollbar.......if you want to take out the rear seats and wear a helmet wherever you go.

A cage is just too dangerous on the street.

Most rollbars / cages aren't street legal anyway.

 

I've not seen any laws against roll-cages in a street car (and would love to be shown one), but I agree that it's crazy, so it's probably moot. You can absolutely split your head open hitting a piece of the cage without a helmet. A roll bar isn't a problem for people in the front seats, but makes it unsafe to ever have people in the back. Thus, I agree that a full cage is incompatible with daily driving.

 

Ok, well then I guess, with an evo x and that much HP, should I seriously consider making it a track only car?

I never drive crazy around town (most of the time i am stuck at 25mph in traffic :P )

But I do go to the track... without a rollcage - does anyone know the ability of the standard safety equipment to help in a rollover?

 

An Evo X can roll without crushing the roof, but it can't take what some call a "boink" (which is when the car doesn't gently roll upside-down, but launches upward and comes down on the roof, as happened in the video that has everyone freaking out). Thus, for example, I don't worry about rallycrossing in a cageless Evo X, since the worst that would happen is a roll. But I'd think twice about going 120 mph without a cage (and I have a deal with my wife not to do this, anyway).

As to whether you want to cage the car and make it track only, that's really up to you. Heck, you could open-track without a cage if that's what you wish to do. This isn't something we can or should decide for you. (After all, we're just a bunch of schmucks with ISPs.) At best or at most, we can give the raw data.

 

I think PA has a law against roll bars, as mentioned to me by a friend who lives there. Something about if it didn't come from the factory stock with a rollbar, it wasn't allowed. I figure if this is true, it might extend to other states.

 

Don't do a race seat and/or competition belts without a full roll cage. It'll be less safe. It'll hold you upright while the roof collapses around you.

Safety is designed to work together. Stock cars are designed so your body can fold out of the way as the roof comes tumbling down.

Likewise, don't do a full cage without harnesses, and don't do harnesses without a race seat. (And don't do HANS without harnesses). You don't want your head hitting the cage, even with the SFI padding (get real SFI padding, not the fake pool-tube-toy foam crap).

Half cages (assuming rear half?) are meaningless in the Evo, since the weak point is the A pillar.

The problem is, once you put in a cage, you're never going back. That car is a race car forever. This is a non-trivial step to make, and you're at a junction now where you could sell the Evo and buy a dedicated race car, rather than continuing the evolution of turning the Evo into a race car.

Treat lightly, plan carefully...

 

If it does, it's relatively new. I lived in PA until 5 years ago. They was no law against a roll bar in a registered and street-driven car.

 

Not sure what kind of racing you are referring to, sounds like road racing, but they are redoing the rules for NHRA for 2013 for drag racing.

You no longer need a cage to go 11.5 or faster in a 2008 or newer car, so the Evo X gets a plus over the evo 8/9...no more getting kicked out with fast evos

 

I am not allowed to call it "racing". :P

I 'track' my car on a road course (here in colorado its High plains raceway, other places you might think of would be laguna seca and the like)


There are about 20 cars on the 2mi track at all times, and collisions are rare for time trial groups i am in. But tire blowouts, oil slicks and overly aggressive cornering are commonplace. (i went off he road at 70mph last year after hitting a huge oil slick a porsche dumped)

Rollovers are not common, but they do happen.

I dont want to make this a track-only car. My evo is meant to be my poor-mans- GTR. So as i add power, I started to wonder... how much is the risk on serious injury increasing?

Hitting 140mph on the track is pretty much every lap on the back straight, so it got me thinking.

 

I think, really, you know the answer to your question.

As your skill and confidence increase, as well as the performance of your car, your lap times will decrease, and on track speed averages will increase. It all makes sense. Also, and this is the important part, you will begin to exercise the outer limits of the car's and your ability more frequently, especially at corner entry and exit, in an effort to decrease your lap times further. It's here that you can run into problems.

I notice, for example, that my top speeds on the front straight of Thunderbolt (NJMP) aren't much faster than they were 3 years ago. Meaning, now I hit 144 or so, and back then I hit 139ish. The 5 mph difference isn't much. Importantly though, my entry speed into that straight increased substantially and my exit speed is about 14 mph faster and braking points are much later.

I see HPDE guys in very fast cars hit high speeds on the straights but enter the turns so slowly and safely that, unless they have a catastrophic failure at speed (which could happen on the freeway home too, they'll be fine. It's when you start to operate at the margins that you really need to take the steps to protect yourself.

If you are committed to reducing your lap times than take the steps to prepare the car, and yourself, for the risks. Cage the car.

 

If you crash at 140 mph the oem safety systems are likely going to be insufficient to protect you from injury.

 

Yeah, good points. Well, I guess there is something to be said for keeping the car totally stock, can't hit 140 at the track in a stock evo :P


Too late for me now... addicted to the mods and power increase :P hahahaha

thanks guys, I just wanted to gauge the thoughts of the community, cheers!