Has anyone manage to install a roll cage that will meet SCCA standards and NOT destroyed the interior while doing it?
I'd like to get back to SCCA hillclimb events but I'm not ready to gut/destroy the interior of a 2018 Honda Civic Type R.
In fact I'd like to be able to drive it to and from events for a few years before sacrificing.
Pictures, suggestions, sources would be welcome.
Thanks

 

A roll cage in a streetcar is a bad idea, unless you and your passengers plan to wear a helmet, HANS, and harnesses every time you drive.

 

ruin the street car... or don't ruin it. if you want to run hill climbs, you need to ruin it.

 

Or buy a wrecked R and spend the time/money to rebuild it, keep the street car nice with interior. That way you have the best of both worlds. It is really hard to race a street car safely, I am currently going through the same conundrum. Gotta make it a dedicated, safe track car. When I think of hill climbs, that evo that lawn darted off of Pikes Peak comes to mind. Play it safe, cage it if you race it keep the bars out of it if its street driven.

You may be able to find a salvageable Type R chassis and drop a HPD crate motor in it, if you have the time and resources. If not, grab an older model shell and build that out.

 

I think it would be difficult to do without ruining the interior. Street safety concerns aside, it's really hard to get an adequately tall main hoop and front legs to fit underneath the headliner and still have enough room under it for your helmeted head. It's also very difficult to get door bars in without doing some serious surgery to the door cards or removing them completely.

 

i am curious why OP expects to even have "interior" with a roll cage, and if he's ok drilling holes in the car when hes not willing to "destroy" the interior.

like just remove the interior like back seats, store it in a garage, your problem solved with interior with a typical bolt in cage. but its going to require drilling holes in the chassis, which is more concerning to me, personally.


and general question since its been a while for me: what are the rules on side airbags with cages nowadays? you have to take them out? or optional?

 

I like to watch this again every few years just to remind myself how violent it was...

 

well... autopower, nothing special.

 

Depends on the class more so than the cage itself. Generally speaking,classes that require a cage also require that you disconnect or disable all airbags and passive restraints (aside from the racing harness of course).

 

It makes me cringe every time I see that. But that cage was done right and he was able to survive. Proper cage right there.

 

At that point you would probably save money by holding out for the turnkey TC Civic R from HPD. That crate engine won’t get you anywhere near a running car anyway. At least then you get a complete, reliable, ready to race car.

 

Oof, this is a tough call. The TCR Type R is fast but it's a $200k tube frame racecar. HPD does have a turnkey Si for club racing which is $52k, but it has the L15 turbo, not the K turbo. They're well developed cars, but you really pay for them.

On the flip side a gentleman by the name of Kevin Boehm put a Type R crate motor into a '17 Si and won at the runoffs last year. His wasn't a cheap build either and has a lot of R&D hours in it, but you could probably do something similar for less than 50k. I also saw a near-stock Type R set up for SCCA Touring 2 last race weekend. Literally a Type R with no interior and a cage. Didn't get exact build cost from the owner but I'm guessing that could also be done for about 40k.

None of these options are terribly cheap. If it was me with my own money, I would probably save up, buy a lightly used secondhand Type R, put a cage in it, and use it as a dedicated track car.

 

 

That's kind of what I'm getting at. Thanks to direct injection and electonic wastegate actuation et. al, you're looking at a $10k ecu if you decide to go aftermarket and a ton of work to get chassis integration if you try to keep the stock ecu happy. There is a FlashPro option, I know at least the TCA variant is running that. I have no clue what the gearbox situation is, but I imagine it's not cheap. The HPD crate engine is barely that per what we expect of crates based on what other manufacturers have done... think Ford's Coyote program, etc. You literally get just an engine with the K20C crate.

There is a TC variant built from the CTR coming. NOT the TCA Si, NOT the JAZ built TCR car (which is not a tube chassis car actually, and is shockingly stock). It's something else designed in-house to slot above the TCA but far below the TCR car. Not sure where the pricing will end up but it's aimed at the domestic club racers.

As far as the $52k Civic Si, I kind of feel like that's a screaming deal for a ready to go brand new car... You get a ready to rock, FIA caged and safety equipped car, already homologated and BoP'd for multiple series? Just buy car, add tires, fuel, and driver? I feel like it would be a massive stretch do that to a brand new Civic Si in your garage, from scratch, for that price. If you are looking to race, it's a bargain. If you are looking to build and develop a car, well obviously not so much.

Turn-key race cars, I think, are where the industry is headed. With the base cars getting so complicated and expensive, the safety requirements getting so stringent, and the series rulebooks getting so restrictive... a normal person who has enough money for a race car either has the time to build one or the time to race one, but probably not both.

I'd personally rather build an old bucket into something fun, but that's me

 

I'd rather BUY an old bucket with a cage

 

^ Totally fair!

 

I agree with this statement 100%. 52K is a good deal for tk. The thing people tend to forget is the man hours into putting together a build, its generally 2.5-3 times the cost of the wholesale parts. I know with my build up to this point, I am in it for months worth of spare time and I'm not even done. Good speed shop's hourly is not cheap!

 

for $15k there are a slew of old world challenge cars for sale... id save my time and buy one of those if I had it laying around like that. I do have an affinity for classic Honda challenge cars ... might as well get rich and expand to old world challenge cars.

 

Honda Challenge aside, there are a lot of classes, both SCCA and NASA that you can be fast in with an old car that you buy second-hand from someone who already did the hard work for you.

I'm not sure why Honda made that car honestly. But that's one reason why I don't work for Honda I guess, right?

 

I'm not a fan of the new Type R.
it looks like a transformer , it's terribly overpriced and the dealer markups make it just too stupid to even consider buying.
You can pick up a new mustang GT with more horsepower cheaper.
ad another 10k and have it upgraded to 6-700 hp.
Honda has been going backwards with its grassroots programs.
The newer chassis don't seem as competitive or have adequate aftermarket support as they used to in years past.
When asked about helping out to bring the newer models into club racing they (Honda) offered bodies in white.
Great that's a start but you had to go to Canada to get them.
Import and ship them back into the US.. That's just for the bodies. No doors, hoods trunks or bumpers.
Add electronics, suspension etc it gets outta hand quick.
what to do right??

 

OP just wants to do some solo events with his car... geez.

whered he go anyway?

 

back to FB groups proly.

 

So much truth in all of this. SMH.

 

For an otherwise stock car the SCCA (and seemingly many hill climb bodies) only require a 4 point roll bar. For that I would imagine you could get a bolt in roll bar that you could take in and out between events. It would be a pain, I think, but seemingly doable.