RACING Caged G-Bodies

[Wraith]

Anyone running a full cage on the street? And if so what brand or custom built?

Really thinking hard about end goals and the build has changed from a hot street car to "I may get one run in before kicked off the track" type, plus I would also like to run the Silver State Classic and Drag Week at least once.

Almost have myself talked into buying a bender to build my own, then I can tuck it to keep it visually appealing to me.

 

[39F]

These cars I both built cages for one was a 6 point other was 12 point ,once you do it to the car it's not quite the same again and lil harder to work on at times but car feels 100% more stable from how much more stiffer it is , the black car had a race car interior made from .040 aluminum ,the blue car had a stock interior including the back seat which was useless ,if you got a nice car rust free with alot of stock stuff I'd leave it alone just my opinion tho

 

[565bbchevy]

IMO I would buy a tubing bender and notcher and do it yourself, I have seen the pre-bent cages for our cars and they still require a lot of work to fit especially if you are trying to retain a stock looking interior plus most only come with straight bars for the down bars in the rear and even though my rear seat is pretty much useless I wanted to keep it.
The only pre-bent bar I bought was the main hoop and I then I bought some seamless tubing locally.
I also bent my doors bars to clear my power seats with full movement and my door panel and door handle.
I bent up the halo but never installed it since I drive on the street I decided getting in and out would be to much of a pain.

 

[Supercharged111]

Bear in mind that an event like the Silver State Classic will likely have more stringent cage requirements than a drag cage so you really need to build your cage for its intended usage. So many people see the cage as an obstacle and will cobble together any old garbage to float them through tech. Most off the shelf offerings are junk, or if they are functional suck to live with. I'd settle for nothing but custom from a reputable builder.

 

[lilbowtie]

I don't know what you are calling a full cage but I wished I had done a at least a 10 point back in the day. Here is a few ideas I'll run buy you. I ran the hoop as close as I could to the door post and ran the down bars along the roof line and down the sale panel through the speaker deck, kept the bars on the outside of the trunk hinges and caught the frame behind the rear wheel. This kept the back seat and left the trunk wide open. It hides the cage pretty good, every time I went to a new track I would get called be to tech for going to fast w/o a cage. If you going for more cage here is an idea I used on the Sonoma. Put the cross bar behind the dash to get the front down bars as close to the post as possible keeping the line of sight wide open. also x'ed the doors in a way to make it easy to get in and out of - can always use a swing out bar. Hope it helps.

 

[500/600]

Anyone running a full cage on the street? And if so what brand or custom built?

Really thinking hard about end goals and the build has changed from a hot street car to "I may get one run in before kicked off the track" type, plus I would also like to run the Silver State Classic and Drag Week at least once.

Almost have myself talked into buying a bender to build my own, then I can tuck it to keep it visually appealing to me.

I'm very interested in this thread. I would like my Malibu to be a little stiffer and safer, but not a total PITA. A lot of trade offs with this one.

 

[bracketchev1221]

A one off custom cage with the interior removed will always fit better. And like was said, find out what you need and get the terms roll bar and roll cage straight. In drag racing a roll bar has no front windshield bar, where a cage does. However a roll bar has to be 1 3/4” steel where a cage can be 1 5/8” steel. Important to think about up front because later on if you decide you want a cage now you are adding on to a heavier roll bar.

 

[39F]

Supercharged111 dead right on that one ALOT of cobbled up horrible put together cages at the track ,cages are there for a reason

 

[Wraith]

So after researching and soul searching I have pretty much nailed it down to a 6 point roll bar in 1.75 mild steel and .134 wall. This should suffice in NHRA racing up to 10.00 as per their stock floor, frame, firewall rule (they only require 1.625 .118) and it will work to run up to the Grand Sport class that tops out at 155mph at Silver State Classic. Now to shop for a maker, I'm not dropping $1300 on a bender for that, been eyeing the Chris Alston bars....

 

[fleming442]

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