Autopower rollbar mounting tips

[Brian D]

I'm posting in this thread because it has the best pictures of the mounting points on the Autopower bar.

This accident happened this weekend at Hallet. It was a hell of an accident, but what stood out to me was the failure of the roll bar, specifically the way it was mounted to the car. Looking at the pictures above, I can't see how the result would be different if it was an E30 crash.

There's further discussion HERE and HERE (about halfway down). The RRAX thread mentions that other rollovers have produced the same result.

I realize that this was a very bad accident and the forces involved were high, but I see absolutely no reason to think that you would be any safer with a bolt in roll bar mounted this way than nothing at all. The rollbar would, in fact, give a false sense of security. I take my car on track with the understanding that it is a street car, and I leave a pretty large margin for error. If I was to get really competitive (TT event), or actually race, you bet your ass I'll have a full, welded in cage.

Just my .02, what say ye?

[Dave]

Larger base plates may have helped.

Having said that, I sold my bolt in and the car is getting a welded cage in it now. Tubing was delivered to the fabricator last week, and the car is going there in a day or two.

[nando]

I find it hard to believe that what is a pretty serious looking race car had a bolt in cage.

and actually, if you look through the discussion - it didn't have any cross bars either. Wasn't much of a roll bar in any case.

[Dave]

faux show car (fo' sho' car???)

And its not like a diagonal or a harness bar would have changed that.

[nando]

no but maybe it would have been built with bigger base plates?

plus who knows how thick the area where the thing is mounted is. This is ford we're talking about here. :p

[z31maniac]

CarFX is a company here in Tulsa, judging by some of the cars I had seen I always wondered if they knew what they were doing or just bolted shit on from other companies.

Guess we know the answer now.

[bmwpower]

Anyone have an email address for Autopower Industries? I want to find out what the deal is with it hanging over the edge like above before I mount it. If this is indeed a bolt in bar, I shouldn't need any modification to make it work. There's no way the E30's differ that much in size.

If not, I guess I will call tomorrow....

[Rigmaster]

Anyone have an email address for Autopower Industries? I want to find out what the deal is with it hanging over the edge like above before I mount it. If this is indeed a bolt in bar, I shouldn't need any modification to make it work. There's no way the E30's differ that much in size.

If not, I guess I will call tomorrow....

Sorry, don't have an email addy for them- but I'm sure the phone number will get you to them.

As for the fitment problem, this is a common issue for bolt in rollbars- not just Autopower. They all use a jig to bend the bars, and there is bound to be some difference between bars as they are bent.


I had a similar problem when I installed the Autopower bar in my E30 track car years ago- I ended up bolting one end of the main hoop in, and pulled the other end with a come along just enough to make it fit over the raised part of the floor, then drilled holes and bolted it all in. No problems since then.


One thing I would HIGHLY recommend is that you install some larger plates on the floor, between the foot plate and the floor pan. Weld them in. The foot plates on the autopower bar are just too small to really hold up under worst case scenario.


I welded in some plates on our Lemons car when we installed the autopower bolt in cage, just cut them to fit the profile of the floor where the foot plates will meet and weld them in. On the main hoop feet I made sort of a box section with horizontal and vertical pieces welded together for strength. IMHO you can't reinforce it too much.

[619E30]

619-297-3300

They're in my area, dealt with them before, good people. Just give them a call

[BimmerScreamer]

every bolt in cage I have ever seen or done personally as been a pita, none have been straight bolt in's. One required extensive work to give it a descent contact patch.

when it comes time to do my own car I am only doing a half cage but it will be weld in, with large base plates

[carnurd]

I have a VSR Bar and once I get it installed I will snap some pics so people can see it. The bar itself fits VERY VERY close to the interior of the car and is quite a snug fit.

[racingwoody]

Make sure when mounting your cage you put your car up on jack stands. Square the car up on the jack stands then drill and put bolts through the holes but do not tighten. After all bolts are in then tighten section by section in two to three stages of tightness. This will keep the car as square as possible.

[sennafan]

Any pics with the rear seat in?

[bmwpower]

Make sure when mounting your cage you put your car up on jack stands. Square the car up on the jack stands then drill and put bolts through the holes but do not tighten. After all bolts are in then tighten section by section in two to three stages of tightness. This will keep the car as square as possible.

Can you describe what you mean by "square the car up on jack stands"?