Show us your Custom Roll Cage or Roll Bar and Harness Setup
 

It has been made quite clear from the numerous track experts on this forum that the best safety harness for serious track use is 5 or 6 point with a fixed back racing seat, a HANS system and a custom roll cage or roll bar. I think a lot of members (like me) that are having trouble staying in their seat on the track would like more information.

Because these are "custom" items, you can't just go to a website and see all of the potential options. You could go to an installer, but they will likely not have pictures of your exact car and setup, or not very many. Also, if there are not a lot of installers in your area, how do you know if the cost they quote is reasonable? Some live in areas where there are lot of modified cars so that they can get ideas by just attending any track event. Others live outside of those areas and never get to see many options.

Please post pictures and information if you have a custom roll cage or roll bar installed in your FR-S, BRZ or GT86:

1. Picture (or many pictures if you can) – both during install and final would be helpful.

2. Material used for the cage or bar: mild steel, chrome-moly, stainless steel, etc.

3. Cost for the complete install

4. A sentence or two about why you chose this option and its everyday usability. Also, try to answer the following questions:
• Can you still use your back seat?
• Is the harness bar removable and can you reinstall the stock seats for street use?
• Do your still drive your car on the street?
• Are the fixed back seats comfortable for every day use?

Here is a thread where I talked about my setup: http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=67281

I think the cost was $1600 for the bar and harness install. I also paid $800 or $900 for each seat plus $100 in mounting hardware and I think $350 for each belt. The sum total was somewhere in the $4.5G - $5G range. This is a custom roll bar done by one of the better race prepping shops in the area. I still daily the car some but the back seat is totally gone.

At this point I am planning on making the car into a full time race car and putting in a full cage, but that is later this year (still working on how to get it to/from the track).

Fabricated this myself, 1.75 DOM tubing, its fully welded in so back seats are definitely not usable. I leave the seat bottoms in place for some noise insulation and they don't weigh anything anyway. I use the car on the street with the stock seats.

http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q...ps115a46f8.jpg

http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q...psede0fc33.jpg

http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q...ps0cf0ba95.jpg

That thing is a work of art.

Thank you very much sir

If I did it again I would make it a bit more tall person friendly but I built around myself 5' 8" so it works for me.

Gorgeous! I fab a lot myself but I need more practice welding before ever attempting something like this! Do you work at a shop or something along those lines? Your welds look invisible they are so clean in the pics.

Yes I own a fab shop and have been doing cages and roll bars for a few years now. I always TIG weld everything I can so thats why they are not all that visible.

You should be pretty confident with your welds before building a safety device but 1.75 is not that hard. You can certainly MIG weld a DOM cage just fine, don't even need a huge machine to do it. I have a little 140 Miller MIG and it would do it just fine with the right techniques.

Any chance for pictures of the chassis mounting points?

I like this thread idea. And it's cage building season. Keep this thread near the top!

Here are pics of the one in the race car: (not frs/brz sorry)
http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showt...ight=roll+cage

Here is how I mounted my roll bar, I have a full cage coming soon and will mount the main hoop slightly different.

Main hoop mounting points area saddle shape of 1/8th plate, this is what I would change on a full cage build.

http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q...psc0fc4f6a.jpg

Rears are a simple plate just in front of the rear shock mounts.

http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q...pse3342993.jpg

very nice!

Why would you change this? not strong enough? If you have a chance could you take a picture from the front back of the clearance from the hoop to the edge of the b pillar at the base. Do you have a feel for how close it can be and still get the panel back in place?

Thanks.

I would move it back on a cage to make a little more room for tall people. Also a full cage would be a race car and have no interior so I don't have to worry about getting the panel in. Also the head liner comes into play, with it in if I move the hoop back it also has to come down so its a trade off in terms of distance from the drivers head. I'm not sure what the roof looks like without the liner but its a safe guess there will be more room to play with. Placing the hoop is a game of trade offs and it really comes down to how the car will be used.

Not sure what photo you want, with the hoop landing here these is a regulation about how far I can lean the bar back. Is that really going to be enforced on a street car with a roll bar, no. However I like to follow the applicable parts of rule books when I can.

Cantrell Motorsports bolt-in rollbar
 

I've have an off the shelf roll bar from Cantrell Motorsports. It is a bolt-in, but you have to weld the front mounting plates (with built-in nuts) to the rear bulkhead.

It is TIG welded 1 3/4" .095 4130 Chromoly tube. The tubes use 4130 chromoly roll bar interlock joints.

Cost $1995. Installation can be up to 10-12 hours depending one how clean/stock you want the interior.

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/pictu...pictureid=8831

After a lot of looking around and considering a custom bar, I chose the Cantrell bar because of the balance of strength, street usability, weight and ability to remove the rear diagonal bar. The latter is important to me for a couple reasons: 1) can easily carry track wheels, tools, jack, etc to track; 2) can have a quiet and nice looking interior for street use.

I went with non-fixedback seats because I want easy access to the rear for stowing things on trips and around town. They are Recaro Sportsters which I like very much; I have them in another car as well.

Pics of it installed:
http://www.ft86club.com/forums/pictu...pictureid=8826

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/pictu...pictureid=8827

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/pictu...pictureid=8828

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/pictu...pictureid=8829

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/pictu...pictureid=8830

Pics of the installation:

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/pictu...pictureid=8832

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/pictu...pictureid=8833

Pics of the interlocks:

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/pictu...pictureid=8835

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/pictu...pictureid=8834

Here is a local guy who drifts' setup:http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showp...&postcount=101

Thanks for the new wish list, that looks incredible. Love the seats, how do you have them mounted?

Cantrell made custom mounting brackets for use with Recaro's sliders. I believe they have a template to make more brackets.

I am getting more serious into tracking the FR-S and want to have seats and a harness which I know will require, at a minimum, a roll bar. However, I am still not 100% on whether this will become the future race car in my garage or if there might be an event in the near (~1 year) future where I would sell it. Therefore I wouldn't want something that is permanently in the car and could be taken out if I sell it for normal street use. Is there anything out there that is decent or should I just wait it out a while longer and see where life takes me so I can just get a full cage/better roll bar?

The Cantrell bar I mentioned above can be removed. The welded in plate can just be left there. I've had bolt-in bars in cars that I later put back to stock. There is always evidenced of the bar (holes/plates/etc), but they are hidden so no-one cares. Never had a problem reselling the car.

Gotcha, i like the sound of that. Is it something that a full cage could be added to in the future or completely different things?

IMO, while you could add on to a roll bar to create a cage, I believe a cage should be fitted as close to the sheet metal as possible so is a custom build on a stripped car.

Has anyone built a race cage removing the headliner and dash and willing to share detailed photos?

We ran a Cusco type cage last year but even with a low riding seat our helmets would contact the halo bar on left handers.

Rules say we have to run a dash so we'll put something back in but trying to get design ideas.

Concept will also include cutting through the firewall to mount to the backside of the strut towers. Idea being if we wreck (hope not) we can just clip the front and not shorten the wheel base.

Any comments or suggestions?

check out ours

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showt...highlight=puma

or this one

https://www.facebook.com/pages/GT-ON...92106757530140

or this one

http://www.quebecfrs.com/forums/spor...r-%28turbo%29/

Beautiful!

Any objections if we decide to copy? We'll be sure to give credit once the build is complete.

Thanks a million for the links!

they seem to have all been built for the FIA certification, just search for it and you'll see the rules and you will build one that looks just like these.

One Ive been working on

http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q...psp6b2pvxm.jpg