Main hoop back suggestions

[Bishop]

Yeah, I'm trying to be realistic here. Even if I wanna drive wheel to wheel down the road, it'll probably be in a chassis that's got a decent local following, and if I can AFFORD it... a main hoop back and running for fun / TT would be sufficient for a while. Full cage = trailer and tow which I also don't have.

[SlapDash]

Here's my cage built in my E30. It's built to Rally America specs (with a dash bar too), but it gives you an idea what the main hoop looks like and the harness bar, which attaches behind the main X.

My rear bars go through the rear seat back and attach to the rear strut towers, which were reinforced, but you might be able to find a way around that.

Bill Doyle of cagethis.com did my cage. Awesome work. His site has plenty of cage designs and more close-up pics of E30s and E36s, among many others if you need them for reference.

That's PsyberOptix back there toiling over my fuel pump.

Either way, good luck and have fun with the build!

[Bishop]

Thanks for those pics, I'm really digging your back half. Thanks for the tip on more pics too and I'm going to have fun with it, just wanting to do plenty of research instead of jumping in and seeing what happens

[SlapDash]

Yes, research is good. I shopped around for almost a year before I found the right person with the right setup and knew exactly what I was looking for. I predict fun times in your future.

[PuebloPete]

If you click on one of my build threads you will see what I did in mine.

Here's a link to the NASA rules about roll cages. SCCA follows the same thing. The diameter is based on the weight of your car. See section 15.6

http://www.nasaproracing.com/rules/ccr.pdf

On my pics, I dont have the front bar in because I was still fitting the dash, I also dont have the rear bar behind the seats yet because of the seat belt position. I do now, just no pics yet. What you can do is build a small box of metal at the base of each side it to weld to and bend the hoop and weld it in. I have the rear supports run from the rear towers up to the top of the main hoop. If you go to Bimmerforums and go to track car builds you will see a lot of cages much better than mine. It may give you some ideas, good luck!

[KennyT]

You can still drive a caged car on the street, you just need to have it properly installed relative to your seat or wear a helmet. I have seen a couple caged rally cars I would daily without a helmet.

If you decide to put in a full cage you need to cut holes in the floor to drop the cage down and weld everything completely. I had to weld up 3 rally cars in WRC Mexico because of poor installs.

[Bishop]

In 15.6 of the NASA pdf, that's the exact design I had in mind for my main hoop. One half of the 'X' (running from driver side top to pass. side bottom and a cross bar for harnesses.

[KennyT]

Just remember with that setup it is aimed at single passenger vehicles. The person in the right seat doesn't have nearly the same safety.

[Bishop]

True. Perhaps I'll do the full X then. My car rarely has passengers whether I'm on track or on the street, but it does happen