So I just went a drove a Spitfire, and am about to call about an MGB. Who knows where this is going, but I hope it'll go to Portland International Raceway. If it were going to be a Serious Business track car (and maybe it will some day) it would need a Proper Roll Bar (or probably cage, but definitely full sanctioning-body approved height). But since it's mostly a fun street car, and since TNiA definitely requires a bar...
How does one handle old cars that have low, clumsy tops, thus making the combo of full-SCCA-height bar and the factory soft top mutually exclusive? Anybody seen an old roadster at TNiA, and if so, what was it rocking for rollover protection?
TNiA has a convertible eligibility flowchart that sends the roll-bar-less owner off to Autopower. Autopower has a street/show bar that claims no safety benefit, but fits under the top. Paeco makes a similar street bar, but also makes a "slalom" bar which pretty much shares construction (like having a diagonal) with their proper race stuff, but lacks the full height, and thus still fits under a top.
I have also pinged TNiA about what to do. It sort of sounds like a proper bar would be at odds with the core requirement of it being a proper street car... I'll report back here with their response.
And before we get sidetracked, there's this and probably several other discussions about the whole question of a bar on the street and safety. Let's call that closed for this discussion, because the car cannot be used for one of its desired purposes without one, full stop, and I'm not going to install and remove a bar every track day.
