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05-06-2010, 02:26 PM
Looks great! A well done cage will also add a lot of rigidity to your car so it's a speed upgrade too!
A few comments after building several race cars, take them for what they are worth.
I know all of these points are relevant for NASA and I assume for SCCA also.
1. The main hoop looks like it curves in before the bottom. NASA rules specify that the angles in the main hoop can't add up to more than 180 degrees.
2. I don't like the diagonal across the roof because it will be right over the driver's head. In general I like to have everything as far away from me as possible.
3. You should really have a cross bar (knee bar they call it sometimes) across the front of the cage between the a-pillar bars. I don't like putting them at knee level really and my 996 actually has 2 cross front bars -- one is behind the pedals which helps prevent wheel intrusion, and one that is higher up right under where the gauge cluster would be.
4. I'm pretty sure you are required to have gussets between the main hoop and the halo, using the same dimension material as the rest of the cage.
5. I just recently worked with the halo design on our lemons car and the a-pillar bar is exactly like is pictured here. In retrospect I would have liked to have it intersect in the middle of the bend in the halo so that it would better distribute forces from the a-pillar bar. In the end though it probably doesn't matter that much and if you did that it could interfere with visibility which also could be a safety issue.
FWIW -- it's hard to make changes once the cage is in.
I'm excited to see the finished product! Keep up with the updates!
A few comments after building several race cars, take them for what they are worth.
I know all of these points are relevant for NASA and I assume for SCCA also.
1. The main hoop looks like it curves in before the bottom. NASA rules specify that the angles in the main hoop can't add up to more than 180 degrees.
2. I don't like the diagonal across the roof because it will be right over the driver's head. In general I like to have everything as far away from me as possible.
3. You should really have a cross bar (knee bar they call it sometimes) across the front of the cage between the a-pillar bars. I don't like putting them at knee level really and my 996 actually has 2 cross front bars -- one is behind the pedals which helps prevent wheel intrusion, and one that is higher up right under where the gauge cluster would be.
4. I'm pretty sure you are required to have gussets between the main hoop and the halo, using the same dimension material as the rest of the cage.
5. I just recently worked with the halo design on our lemons car and the a-pillar bar is exactly like is pictured here. In retrospect I would have liked to have it intersect in the middle of the bend in the halo so that it would better distribute forces from the a-pillar bar. In the end though it probably doesn't matter that much and if you did that it could interfere with visibility which also could be a safety issue.
FWIW -- it's hard to make changes once the cage is in.
I'm excited to see the finished product! Keep up with the updates!