RACING Caged G-Bodies

[RecklessRegal]

I'm in the process of doing this exact thing right now, here is my take on it.

• Don't waste the money on a mild steel cage, if you ever outgrow it (and trust me, eventually you will) it's junk and has to be cut out. Spend the few extra bucks now for a 4130 C/M cage, that you can add onto as your car gets faster. A 10 second car and a 6 second car use the same exact 10 point cage as a foundation. Plus you can run a smaller diameter tube (1-5/8 .083 wall) and save a sh*t load of weight)
• S&W makes a kit that goes through the dash, they also can run the rear bars through the package tray so you can have passengers in the back seat, they are called "pro street" rear bars. I have both for my car.
• As Streetbu mentioned above, if you are going to street drive this thing - know what you're getting yourself into.
  • Children can never safely ride in the car again, in any seat.
  • The back seats are basically out because you need a harness bar that will be in front of the rear passengers face.
  • A helmet and/or containment device is a must at all times. Roll bar padding is a joke, it does nothing.

You can be doing nothing wrong but if someone rear ends you sitting at a stop light with a cage you're 100% dead. I hear people say all the time that they can't touch a bar when strapped in but belts stretch, mounts fail, and sh*t moves in an accident.

Also, many friends and I work the Silver State Classic every year, the requirements there are very different than what's required for drag racing.

 

[mccormack944]

Listen to streetbu and reckless regal. A cage (which has a halo) really isn’t safe in a street car. If you do one you need to keep all the bars to where your head can’t possibly touch it with a 5 point harness, which you’d have to wear all the time, even then not safe. You need to keep in mind how big your helmet is when in the seat and belted in, needs clearance. Your harness bar needs mounted in the correct location so the belts are mounted right, too much downward belt angle behind the seat can hurt you in a wreck. The halo has to be tall enough that in a rollover the roof doesn’t crush your head, sometimes that requires new seat and custom mounting, by this point you should be thinking about a performance seat anyway. If you do a 6 point (roll bar) same thing about the main hoop, door bars need to be in a comfortable spot, and as fast as you’re talking about swing out door bars are more dangerous than none, those are more for 12ish second cars. Your best bet is finding a very reputable builder that does a lot of custom fan work. Safety is no joke in a car like this especially if you wreck at any decent speed track or not. Even in a perfect car metal bends and contorts, if not perfect you can have broken welds, stuff that bends worse than it should, etc. We wrecked a metric super stock this year completely caged too to bottom 1 3/4 professionally built doing about 100-110, car rolled three times didn’t hit any walls yet it was TORN up. However everything worked as it should, no broken welds, driver climbed out and walked away without a scratch, because the car was right. Long story short this is one place you do not mess around, don’t skip anything, and talk to professionals that do it every day. I know I probably sound a little like a freak about some of this, but I’ve been around and seen a lot of race cars wreck. In one night this year I saw a guy flip in a 4 cyl get taken out of the car having seizures and have to be lifelighted, can’t race for 12 months. Car wasn’t built right, or something broke because his helmet beat the crap out of the roof or the wall depending who you ask, 1 hour later in a b main watched a modified flip at least 5 times from the same spot flew into the catch fence landed hard as heck tore the car to shreds by the time the first safety crew got there and lifted off the roof that tore in half, the guy climbed out and walked away. Car was built right. Quality and expertise is everything on a cage or roll bar

 

[Streetbu]

I have zero doubts about his ability to build it right. The real question is to cage it or not.. I vote no unless you plan on wearing a helmet when you drive on the streets.

 

[Supercharged111]

Applied doesn't have G-body cages. Autofab, wow that pricing! I have looked at SW

https://wildridesracecars.com/shop/general-motors/g-body-6pt-roll-bar/

I'm gonna go out on a limb here, have you owned a caged car before? The front and rear bars would never pass tech for road racing (circuit) use. I know it flies in the drag racing world though, which is why I said before to build it for your intended use. Bear in mind I haven't read the cage rules for the silver State Classic, but the bends in those tubes are red flags for me. That's a roll bar, not a roll cage. Big difference. These manufactured bars are made for ease of installation, not maximum protection. Be ready to spend some money too. A 6 point cage around here goes for $3,000+. I know if I went to a southern state I could get it done closer to $2,000, but it's a lot more than the bar in the link. As others have stated, this turns you from a street car to a race car and that can be a bit of a pill to swallow knowing that your pride and joy is no longer safe to drive to the store without a helmet. Racing harnesses are also not DOT legal since they're not regulated, harness or installation.

 

[mccormack944]

Also keep in mind that when you put a helmet on your head becomes heavier, so if you’re wearing a harness and a helmet you really should be wearing some sort of hans or at least a neck brace so you don’t snap your neck in an impact

 

[fleming442]

This all reminds me of the old Car craft or Hot Rod article "10 race car things you shouldn't do to a street car "

 

[39F]

I know I've seen lots of cars were the 5 points are bolted into sheet metal or tabs welded to sheet metal hell you smack a curb theyd rip right out ,or guys get cages and there head is above or level with the cage big no no . I have a feeling I might end up in this boat also car might end up being too fast for track but i like my stock interior how it is and don't plan on going faster then 11s

 

[mccormack944]

Not to hijack this thread and make it a safety rant but it is kind of sad the way a lot of people treat safety modifications on cars whether knowingly or not. You see people buy 10 grand race engines but cry over a $500 scattershield, like a stamped steel floor pan will save their feet. Or like 39f said they’ll bolt their 5 point harness to a stamped steel pan. I think the moral of this whole story here for the original question is sit down and do a lot of hard thinking about what you want this car to do, you can’t have everything. If you don’t do this, you will waste a lot of time and money. If you want it to be a street car drag car or silver state car things need to be done different and it’s not just the roll bar/cage argument. Depending on what you do there will have large effects on seating and brackets, restraints, overall interior setup, and so on. Everything snow balls and before you know it you could end up with a cage certd to 8.50 kirkey seat tub the car cut out all the flooring and such and run the whole cockpit out a fuel cell in then 2 years from now you want a street car. The only one who can truly answer what works best is you based on your goals, and whatever you do just make sure it’s done safe, not just to pass tech.