has anyone done any research on bolt in roll bars?....half one and full ones......i remember in my older porsche it had one of those Autopower ones that wasn't too bad

 

No research, but the Autopower roll bar/cage for the Lancer should fit the Evo as well. It will not be as structurally enhancing as one custom designed for that purpose, but it will protect you more in the event of an accident.

Try

http://www.ioportracing.com/index.html

Click on the online catalog link and then rollbars for Mitsu's.

Jason

 

Actually, IMHO, a bolt-in roll cage is as dangerous as not having one while racing. The bolt-in ones break off from their bolts very easy considering the harshness of some crashes and the roll bars, especially half ones, become a tremendous floating force with the confined cabin.

Again, it is just my opinion, but better make sure you do some more research on the roll cages.

 

Will the Cusco bar meet NASA standards and SCCA too?

 

Mate, I not flaming you, but let me get this straight, you are saying that no cage is safer? How? If the cage does detach from the chassis (unlikely, I have NEVER heard of that), where is it going to go? And how come many bolt in cages are FIA, RAC, etc approval? If they where dangerous in the slightest then both of the organisations listed (and many more) would instantly remove their names from it. Cages are safer final. On the stiffening of the chassis then even a bolt in cage will provide much increased stiffness, and if you want to make them more secure, then you can simply weld the cage into place (cheaper than buying a weld in cage and easier to fit)!

 

None of the series you mention, accept "bolt on" cages, they all require welded ones. And they have very specific requirements regarding the welding, base size, attachment points, etc. These rules are very detailed.

We just prepared a rally car for the NASA rally series here in the US, and believe me, I learned some suprising things about the process and requirements; which are not even close to WRC or FIA specs.

A bolt-on cage's weakest link are the bolts themselves. They are no where near as strong as the tubes themselves. I can tell you first hand that you cannot put a saine rally driver into a car with bolt-on cage. For track purposes, I assume it may be OK. However, my point in the first post was to just mention something I personally had not thought about and provide a warning to hopefully have racerferrari thing twice about various situations that may arise.

He already seems to be an accomplished tracker, so I am sure he has quite a bit of information. My purpose was to have him not take a bolt-on cage for granted as a safety device.

 

thanks guys you both had some very good points....i'm sure that a complete welded in full cage is the way to go for sure....but for what i'm doing and the cost and trying to keep it a streetable car.....i'm sure any safety device is better than not having one at all.....i just wanted to know if anybody had any experience installing a bolt in roll cage in an EVO....i'm getting this feeling that these 4 wheel cars are susceptalbe to roll over....i just kinda feel it when i'm driving in it...thanks...wayne.. www.pulpracing.com www.opentrackchallenge.com

 

Seleker is right in that a weld in cage is preferable and stronger than a bolt-in model. The key to a good bolt-in cage is the backing plates and the size, strength, and quantity of bolts. A lot of guys will slack on the backing plates and bolts if they are hard to install or require some customizing. Bolt it in and then maybe add some custom supports that weld on to the structure.

I don't know if this still holds true, but for SCCA showroom stock club racing used to require a bolt-in cage. I have not looked at a rule book for a while though.

Jason

 

Yep they still do, and now they increased the base plate sizes too. Thanks to Kearney Racing, we got them in time for the car to get ready for this weekend's rally.

 

i'm kind of curious, i come from a rock crawling jeep background, and of course you must weld the cage to the frame in about 6 points to get the thing right, mount the seats to the cage, ect. however, in a unibody car i would think sandwich plating the roll cage to the body of the car would be stronger, having a plate on both side of the sheet metal and then using four large bolts to hold the sandwich together. if you simply welded to the body you would be weaking the thin body metal, and creating a point where the cage would probably just punch through the car when it rolled.

i was simply going to do this for my own personal car since i have an evo and build cages for rock crawlers which regularly get rolled, as in more than a couple times a year ( but not at 50 miles an hour ).

do you all mount your seats to the cage? what wall tubing do you use, what alloy, as in chromoly or mild steel?

how many points do you mount to the body and where are the strongest?

do they mandrel bend the cage or use crush type bender?

i've noticed that alot of sports car cages aren't completly welded together, but bolt in and use misallignment joints to connect bars. seems kind of odd, creating places for the cage to fail so easily, but then again, it would probably save you in a roll over.

i think that alot of people forget that all a sports car cage has to do is work in one roll, thats it ( after that, the car is dead ). plus, it works in conjunction with the hard top, which means you don't have to build them quite as efficiently with bends as you would for an open top rig.

i am very interested in seeing a WRC cage up close with its connection points to the body. i think it would be neat to replicate one.

 

Sorry FSelekler, I did go off on one a little and you are right on the FIA thing (I was thinking of the smaller club rallying scene, not the bigger events), I apologise.
eron, I think if you use a large mounting plate, and prep the areas where you intend to mount the cage well, then a weld in cage is stronger. I can’t guarantee this, but I know that generally weld in units can have up to about 18 points of securing, so they are much better at distributing the point loads. The seats are not mounted to the cage in cars. Generally in racing they are mounted directly to the floor to help with the centre of gravity. As for the material of the cage, generally high grade steel for the big boys, or I think mild for bolt in stuff (not positive but will check). On the purpose of a cage, in hard top they are not just for safety, they add huge structural strength. Ford’s Focus WRC has a cage that they said was heavier than last years, but because it adds more rigidity, they went with it.

 

Chuntington,

there is absolutely no need for apologizing, we are all trying to share our experiences, and message board communications are hard, we all know

Don't worry about this type of stuff, we are generally mature enough