Cover all exposed bar areas (within reason)? Or just areas that a helmet can make contact?

Will

 

j00 get a cage?!?!

jason- who is excited

 

if it's for street use, I'd say cover everything - at least all the places where either driver or passenger could make contact with any part of their bodies.
If race only, I guess with the driver strapped it, the only body part that may hit anything would be arms, legs and head - on the driver side only.

Personally, and regardless of actual need, I would just pad the entire bloody thing - padding is (relatively) cheap.

 

NO!

I am axing for a meotter owner.

Will

 

Depends on the series and sanctioning body.. you can look at my GCR if you want... typically anyplace your helmet could possibly contact.. even if your harnesses break... typically includes the complete halo(front, rear and side) of bars on the driver-side, as well as a foot or so of the bars running downward.. front and rear cross-bar.. or, you could just look in my car.

 

No halo on a "Roll Bar" so...

The main hoop/diag. bar?

It will be kinda hard to hit the bar (with a helmet) unless the seat back fails.

Will

 

yes, I would cover anything Shoulder height and above.. on both sides if somebody is riding shotgun.

That's the type of incident you are preparing for so, you have to assume it could happen.

 

Well I guess the whole bar must be covered if you are 5'-3".

Quit hogging my thread man...

Will

 

Well, nobody else wants to talk to your punk a$$!

 

Since rollbar padding is pretty cheap compared to everything except MAYBE Karl's bag of potato chips, might it not just be a good form to err on the side of overkill perhaps and pad every tube of the rollbar that's anywhere close to your head or that of a potential passenger?

 

I would have to agree.

 

There are several styles of padding. Get the most dense you can. Some of the stuff on the market will compress all tghe way to the pipe and is basically useless.

Grumpy

 

(assuming the car will go on track)

Will - you'd be surprised what a helmet can hit. A THSCC guy backed his Miata into the tire wall at CMP this fall. Looking at his hard dog bar, you'd think he'd padded everything he could possibly hit. The only thing not padded looked far away - it was, IIRC, the downpipes going through the deck directly behind the headrest. No problem, the headrest is there.

Wrong.

His seat broke on impact, and his helmet contacted that part of the rollbar. He sustained a mild concussion - enough to make him woozy. Scary.

So I say pad the hell out of it.

 

That is what i told him... I guess 250 whp is gonna make the meotter move like a scalded dog... but smash =

Will

 

Well, regular old roll bar padding may be cheap...but the SFI padding needed for competition is NOT cheap. Save that stuff for the bars around your head. Still, don't skimp on it. You can never be TOO safe.

But there isn't any reason to not fully pad the rest of the cage with the cheap stuff.

 

Where do you buy the padding from? Hardware store?

 

http://www.ioportracing.com

 

When I first got my SCCA logbook the tech people told me to pad everything because it could help protect the people pulling you out of your car (heaven forbid!) but after a season I was the only car all padded up and so I pulled out everthing on the passenger side and it was like I could breathe and see again. I have the SFI stuff and it is good but it still hurts to whack your head. I once was to aggressive and ran over the FIA curb from hell and I gave my head a good shot against the side of the halo and fully padded and with a new Bell helmet it still really hurt. I was surprised, hopefully your friend won't be.

Victor Penner

 

don't forget that you should pad bars that your arms and legs could contact as well. i was in a wreck during the SVWC race at sear's point and the only injuries i sustained were severe brusing to my forarms and my legs because the bars weren't padded. wrecks are violent and i now make sure that everything that any part of my body could contact is padded.