Sterling Doc

Joel, I thought your original cage was a Safety Devices bolt in?

As far as the Hanksville cage, I will say it fits very well. One benefit of that is that it allowed me to weld the a-pillars into the cage with small plates. You could place the dash bar lower (under the steering column, making a node with the door bars, but that places that bar closer to your legs. My current, custom cage is that way, but there are advantages & disadvanages to it.

This is another nice cage, made by Izzy's custom cages:

PorscheDoc

The diagonal bar behind the drive's head that goes to the floor on the passenger side, and the horizontal harness bar are not connected together on the autopower cage. The diagnonal bar passes about an inch or so in front of the horizontal bar. NASA rulebook says they have to meet and be welded (even shows a diagram in the rule book). Joel tried to get his log book at a race out in Illinois or Indiana, and they told him the cage was not allowed because of this. They would let him race, but would not give him his log book on the new car???

PorscheDoc

From the NASA CCR


Autopower Rollbar (this is not in a race car, but the rollbar in my DE car, but the rear hoop design is the same)





Some clarification on this would be fantastic!

shiners780

Those two bars intersect and are welded just like any other cage on my Autopower cage.

Maybe those shown not intersecting are old version?

FlyingDog

That is fine. The horizontal harness bar is not required. The diagrams in the CCRs are for people who have harness bars that intersect the hoop diagonal. If you have a harness bar that intersects the diagonal, the diagonal should be 1 straight piece. If it was incorrectly constructed as 2 pieces, it must be installed as if it was 1 straight piece.

M758

Most autopower cages are like shiner's. Legal. Also a seperate harness bar form the diagonal should not be an issue. The safety devices cage do have an issue the diagonal terminates at the base of the rear stay vs in the plane of the main hoop. For that however I figure you just need to put in a legal diagonal. Not a big deal really.

PorscheDoc

Just the explanation we needed. Now if the 944 SPEC tech inspectors would read this, lol!

I have been writing a series of articles for our local PCA newsletter about the process of building a spec car, so i have had to amend an article because of this issue.....i guess I will amend it again!

We ordered 3 cages from autopower early this year, and they all came with non-intersecting bars.

M758

This is not 944 spec issue. NASA CCR's and your local NASA tech guys.

944 spec is not involved with basic cage rules like this.

PorscheDoc

Gotcha.

Lemming

Here's mine, built and installed by Mark at Kirk Racing in B'ham. Hard to see the cage well since I have the passenger seat still installed from my last DE that I instructed (like to be able to take my students for a ride).

John, notice how the front a-pillar bar goes to the floor pan but is also welded to the side plate. I've not seen this on other builds, what are you thoughts?

FlyingDog

If you have issues with your local guys about something you believe to be legal per class rules and the CCRs, ask NASA National. Your local regional has the ultimate say about safety, but NASA National can help apply pressure if you are right.

DanR

I was thinking about one of these to replace my safety devices bolt in cage, especially with the current exchange rate http://www.customcages.co.uk/Rollcag...ype=Multipoint

any thoughts?

thingo

Here's a few of mine during the build.Different emphasis , this car won't be racing door to door, more rollover protection.

jaje

Mine was an Autopower weld in roll cage.
I bought the car from Underground Autosport (who is also a local shop) who built it for SP1 and NASA 944 Spec racing. Of the 6 they ordered 2 came without that connected bars (of which I got one of them). Some reason they got a different version and bought the old cage back from me (which I was impressed they stand behind their work and warranty).

I'm not trying to knock the Autopower cages as cheap or unsafe in any way - just my experience with them. I should have stated that the other cages I saw had the intersecting bars but for some reason mine didn't.

In the end I'm far happier I went ahead and had a custom cage built to fit my tall frame (or as Karl says "larger frame") and have more confidence pushing the limit. It gave me several inches more clearance and I now have a knee bar that is underneath the dash and not directly touching my shins / knees.

Plus I can feel the car being slightly stiffer b/c they new cage runs to the firewall giving me better foot protection and the cage is mounted to frame and suspension points rather than plain sheet metal.

stownsen914

RedlineMan -- Can you elaborate? I'm not picturing this ... thanks.