Russ Murphy

Or the lack thereof.
I'm getting ready to fabricate a cage in my 944 turbo for PCA GT class and I'd like to take advantage of the fact that there's very little specified in the Club racing rulebook about cages other than tubing specs for the main hoops, but I also don't want to build something that gets rejected for some currently unspecified reason. I'd like to tie the cage to the A pillars and roof among other things. Does anyone know if I can do this? I know that in SCCA racing the adage is "if it's not in the rules don't do it", but there's nothing specified in the rules that I'm aware of.

Russ Murphy

If anybody has any insight I'd appreciate hearing it. Please don't be concerned about it being the "end all" of an answer. And I won't sue you if my cage gets banned.
TIA

MJR911

If its a GT class car, you can do as much as you like... tieing it to suspension points, thru the firewall, pillars, etc. I know some cages that only use the specified tubing diameters and thicknesses for the part around the driver, or where its a safety issue.... then use lighter tubing around the rest of the car.

Bill Gregory

For clarity, you should ask Lance Weeks, who is the PCA technical and rules contact. He can be reached at LWEEKSPORS@aol.com

Russ Murphy

Mitch,
Those are exactly the kinds of things I was planning on doing in addition to webbing the
the hoops to the A-pillars and roof. Thanks.

Bill,
Thank you for the contact info.


Anybody have good photos or links with great cage designs for 944 variants?

MJR911

http://www.vehiclecraft.com/

Jeff Curtis

Albeit, I am NOT the final word, but you said you were building a PCA GT Class car...so that's the word there - pretty much unlimited on where you tie the rollbar into.

Being that Cup cars, etc. have factory Matter rollcages that are tied into the A and B pillars, and they can run in D class and above or GTC with slicks, I would imagine you might even get away with tying the cage into the A and B pillars in stock classes too??

THAT, I dunno...but you have GT rules to deal with, I believe the cage is "FREE" in reference to tie points.

Russ Murphy

Jeff,
Thank you sir.

Mitch,
A picture is worth a thousand words.

MJR911

Jeff,
I have not seen a D car that has the cage tied into the suspension points. The cup cars that run in D are "supposed" to be US cup cars, reworked to be street legal with no cage. If they have such a cage, tied into suspension points, this is surely a GTC-1 car.

I think it is legal to tie any stock class car into the pillars, as long as it doesn't effect the headliner or interior. There really cannot be that much to gain here.

M758

Russ,
PCA requirements are stated in the rule book for main hoop tube thickness and diameter. Follow those and basic safe cage design with respect to weld quality and main tubing locations. Then once done you can add in any tubes anywhere you think will help and you can do anything to weld parts of the cage to the body. GT rules are very open for this. Only thing to consider is that with no min weight the more tubes you add also add weight so consider the stiffness weight benefits.

Russ Murphy

Thanks man.

On a side note, am I just nuts to run a 2600 lb car with 350 rwhp in GT3S? Any hope that I could be a mid pack car assuming the prerequisite driving skills?

Mike Buck

Russ,
I think you are probably a little nuts The reason I've built my car for "E" was that I knew I didn't have the $$ to think about building even a decent GT3 car. 450rwhp and 2300lbs were the benchmarks I had in my mind

M758

Russ... Your ok. You may not win, but wont be a rolling road block either. I know of a 944 Turbo in GT3S that ran 2700lbs or so (steel widebody & stripped) with about 400 rwhp that did pretty well.

I am crazy running my 944-spec in GT4S 2450lbs and only 131 rwhp?

Talk about rolling road block.

Russ Murphy

<<450rwhp and 2300lbs were the benchmarks I had in my mind>>

Ouch! That's quite the benchmark.

<<Russ... Your ok. You may not win, but wont be a rolling road block either. I know of a 944 Turbo in GT3S that ran 2700lbs or so (steel widebody & stripped) with about 400 rwhp that did pretty well. >>

Cool. That's my concern, being a rolling roadblock. Early next spring I'll go to a DE @ Putnam and at least get a rough idea via lap times.
Thanks.

Jeff Lamb

Russ, another handy reference guide when doing cage work are the SCCA guidelines. They are more detailed than the PCA guidelines. Plus, if you plan to run any regional SCCA events in the ITE class, it would be nice to know that your cage meets the minimum requirements for the SCCA, too.

Who is going to be doing your cage work? Are you going to be using chromoly tubing or not?

Jeff