roll cage question

[Highbanked Hauler]

If you were looking for a clean driver not a (show) car and you found what you were looking for BUT it had an 8 point roll cage would that be a deal breaker? With all the idiots on the road I was thinking of putting one in the 68 when I do it.

[Ghoste]

It might be a deal breaker for me.  I'd have to see the cage and how much was messed up or missing to get it in there.

[tan top]

hmmmm     dont think it would 

[FLG]

As long as you can get all the interior pieces in...than no.

It you cant id have whatever needed to be modified all fixed up so you can have a full interior and keep the cage. Sure stiffens the uni-body up, also god forbid anything happened you surely be safer. Just make sure you have the engine to match the need for the cage 

[jb666]

It definitely wouldn't for me, provided it was done right, and as others have said, allows all interior items to go in...

I found a car I loved once, years ago (Camaro). I wanted it so bad.. .Split bumper, big block.. But I had 2 small kids... I looked inside.. It was tubbed and had two race seats, yet was street legal... Just not for me, I needed a back see to strap the kids in 

[moparguy01]

I saw a pro street car years back I think it was a duster, that the guy had a cage built to hold a carseat in the back

[Highbanked Hauler]

  My idea is to get some occupant protection which our cars are woefully  short on and stiffen the unibody some without making it hard to get in the car. If the link came through the 10 point drag race cage is the one I was thinking of with a little modification. As far as the engine that's for the next person to worry about.  Sorry, the site didn't come through.

It you cant id have whatever needed to be modified all fixed up so you can have a full interior and keep the cage. Sure stiffens the uni-body up, also god forbid anything happened you surely be safer. Just make sure you have the engine to match the need for the cage

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[Aero426]

I don't understand why anyone would want a cage in a street car from a safety standpoint.     What good does the cage do when you hit your unhelmeted head or other flailing body part on the bars?     People underestimate how much the body can move in an accident.

[Mike DC]

   

Installing/removing a rollcage isn't any worse than doing some quarter skins or flooring work. 



I don't think a streetable cage is impossible but I do think that you have to build the whole cage with that in mind. 
I hardly ever see a cage that I would really be satisfied with that wasn't custom built for exactly how it's being used. 



Streetable cages need very serious attention paid to padding the bars.  The conventional padding that most guys use on race cars is nowhere near dense enough for an unhelmeted head.  Not even close. 

You could make the argument that there's no way to make the bars safe enough, but I would counter that there's no way to make half the stock interior structure of the car safe enough either.  I can lean over and hit my head on the interior sheemetal of the roof in a stock B-body, and it's got absolutely no padding at all from the factory.  If you tucked the bar right up against it and gave it some very dense padding then IMHO it would probably be no worse than the stock interior in a serious side-impact.

 
   

[Aero426]

You could make the argument that there's no way to make the bars safe enough, but I would counter that there's no way to make half the stock interior structure of the car safe enough either.  I can lean over and hit my head on the interior sheemetal of the roof in a stock B-body, and it's got absolutely no padding at all from the factory.  If you tucked the bar right up against it and gave it some very dense padding then IMHO it would probably be no worse than the stock interior in a serious side-impact.

My issue with it is that your head is that much closer to the impact area.     I formerly owned the Mercury below which was a street car with a four point cage.     I never had a close call as little as I drove it, but sure would not have wanted to find out.   I was a lot younger then too. 

[jb666]

You could make the argument that there's no way to make the bars safe enough, but I would counter that there's no way to make half the stock interior structure of the car safe enough either.  I can lean over and hit my head on the interior sheemetal of the roof in a stock B-body, and it's got absolutely no padding at all from the factory.  If you tucked the bar right up against it and gave it some very dense padding then IMHO it would probably be no worse than the stock interior in a serious side-impact.

My issue with it is that your head is that much closer to the impact area.     I formerly owned the Mercury below which was a street car with a four point cage.     I never had a close call as little as I drove it, but sure would not have wanted to find out.   

I agree with you completely. As an owner of a street car with a full cage I can tell you I would not want to have my head come in contact with these bars... It's part of the reason I went with 5pt harnesses... But even that, I can still nail my big head off the side bars... Time for some padding.

[Mike DC]

            
I agree with you guys in the big picture.  


But still, I've been in some modern cars with the roof interior structure so close to my head that it was uncomfortable.  And the only padding they have is deformable molded headliners.  Those things are good items for the large area they smoothly cover if you get rattled around inside the car.  But in a spot-impact they probably aren't any better than good rollcage padding in terms of the raw crush distance before you hit the metal.  Some have argued that the sheetmetal is easier on your head than the rollcage tubing, but I think the situation is probably liable to give you a bad concussion & fractured skull either way.  

I'm not trying to advocate rollcages in street cars per se.  I'm just saying that I don't think a GOOD cage is categorically worse than an uncaged (vintage) car.  There are too many modern cars with interior structures that make me downright claustrophobic, and yet they pass crash testing better than a stock musclecar every could.