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.