I'm wanting to build this new-to-me, mostly caged Miata into a car that fits anywhere I'd want to run it in terms of the cage. I'm trying to determine which of the organizations I may run with have the most strict cage requirements so I can build to that spec.
Where I see myself using the car;
- Definitely
- Maybe
- NASA
- Vintage - I actually don't know what year the Miata is at this point
From experience, I think ChampCar and Lemons are typically more strict (at least their tech inspection is) than SCCA but my experience with SCCA road racing is limited.
I'm planning to print out the cage regs for all of the above and study them but thought the massive amount of knowledge here may be able to lead me in the right direction.
I suppose it's also necessary to note that I expect to keep the full windshield and a hardtop on the Miata - that is, no F-Prod type cage.
I'm curious to hear the results of this research as well. I've just purchased a race car that may need some cage updates, depending on the series.
I would think you would be good building to SCCA spec as a baseline. An Improved Touring cage covers most everyone, as long as you include the optional dash bar. I like nascar door bars, which make interior room so much better, but cutting the interior panel of the door could cause a bit of consternation for some groups. Tube size and thickness is pretty standard for most groups, except NHRA, and that doesn't matter unless you are figuring on running 11.50's or better. 1.5" .120" wall is overkill for pretty much every ruleset I've read, again other than NHRA that wants 1 5/8, 120.
Read through the various rules, start with a baseline, and add features that may be required by other bodies. If you build a good, clean cage to that spec or close to it, you should be fine. I guess I should remind that SCCA IT rules limit you to 8 mounting points and also limit the footprint size of the mounting plates to limit "accidental" stiffening of the chassis.
Check the Hillclimb regs at NEHA.
I have a caged miata chassis (that I've been trying to sell forever) with a miatacage.com cage in it. One of the things I found was that the 095 wall used in my cage was NOT good for lemons, they need a .120 wall. I didn't check other sanctioning bodies but thats as far as I got.
Streetwiseguy - Good tips, thanks. And I think you're probably right that an SCCA cage would fit most. For instance I looked earlier this morning and AER just specifies that the cage should be built to SCCA/NASA and the like standards. No actual definition that I saw. This car has what was, at some point, a NASA Spec Miata cage so it should be a good start.
vwcorvette - Hillclimb spec is also a good suggestion. I bet those are rather stringent.
Kendall_Jones - I noticed that about Lemons this morning while looking around. I'm guessing they almost never check that, however, since the car we run was also a Spec NASA car back in the day and it almost certainly has .095 wall tubing in it.
Kendall_Jones said:
I have a caged miata chassis (that I've been trying to sell forever) with a miatacage.com cage in it. One of the things I found was that the 095 wall used in my cage was NOT good for lemons, they need a .120 wall. I didn't check other sanctioning bodies but thats as far as I got.
.095 Chrome Moly is usually a substitute for .120 DOM with all organizations.
Lemons does not allow Chrome Moly tubing, period.
Chump will penalize you for overbuilding a cage.
Lucky Dog adds a the requirement of a dashbar to what Lemons requires.
It's pretty easy to build a cage that fits all three of those organizations. I have no SCCA experience so I can't speak to that.
I think this one checks all the boxes
Tom1200
SuperDork
7/22/21 2:22 p.m.
I have an Autpower 1.75 / .120 kit they we simply added to as SCCA updated the regs. It's total overkill but I'm OK with it.
I've run my car with SCCA, NASA and vintage.......everyone accepted it.
Thanks everyone for the responses. A bit of an update here - it seems like I'm going to be starting from scratch on this cage. Here's why.
The Miata I was expecting has a cage that was cut out of another car and plopped into this one. Not necessarily the best scenario but, in general, if nothing is bent/cracked I don't see why that would be a problem. BUT, there is a problem. The cage itself was cut to be removed from the old car. Everything from the main hoop back is totally in tact and actually looks great but the forward bars, door bars and top cross bar diagonal over the driver's head were cut. Apparently everything was sleeved and re-welded but it gives me the heebie-geebies.
On top of that, I've been offered an even cleaner Miata roller to use as a base. SO, all that said, the plan now is to take the engine and trans out of the "caged" car, put it in the nice clean one and then cage it.
Options I see are, spend ~$3k and send it to the expert cage guy down in Akron
- OR -
Buy one of the off the shelf kits (~$1,500) and put it in myself.
I've never welded up a cage and I think I would enjoy the process. Miatacage seems to be a good value/cage. Anyone have experience with off-the-shelf kits? Particular things I should avoid?
As to DIY, how is your welding? If it's not top-notch, consider paying someone. If so, go for it. I enjoy building them for the most part.
And how limber are you. I've built several and standing on my head to weld all the way around the tubes isn't as easy as it use to be for me.
In reply to Toyman01 + Sized and :
It's a fair question and I would definitely do some trial runs with scrap pieces of the same material to get the settings just right but everything I've welded is presentable and still holding together at this point. I have no reason to believe I couldn't make it happen and be sound.
That said, I did just leave a message for the cage guy. I was supposed to link up with him at PVGP this past weekend but it didn't happen.
I installed a Miatacage.com kit in our old Lemons car, and it passed tech easily and kept one of the worst incidents I'd ever seen from hurting our driver. Building it was miserable every step of the way, but I've got nothing but good things to say about it.
https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/project-cars/1992-yellow-mazda-miata/upgrading-bar-cage/
In reply to Tom Suddard :
Miserable every step of the way gives me pause, but thanks for the vote of confidence for the kit.
In reply to AxeHealey :
Yeah.... I'm a fairly good welder, and at the time I think I was 18 years old and weighed 150 lbs. It was still terrible squeezing into the spots I needed to in order to weld every tube.
