Found a car that looks like a good platform built a few years back but never raced. No logbook or anything but wanted to see if anyone here could speculate if the cage would still be legal.
Thanks!
Found a car that looks like a good platform built a few years back but never raced. No logbook or anything but wanted to see if anyone here could speculate if the cage would still be legal.
Thanks!
Looks much like the cage I had in my SpecMiata. Looks pretty good to me, but you should check current SCCA rules to be positive. I see no knee bar and there are braces going forward from the A-pillar tubes. I can't recall if the forward bracing meets the rules, or if a knee bar is a requirement. Someone on here will no doubt race one and have a current answer.
The cage in and of itself looks SCCA legal; I do not know if the tubes going forward from the front hoop to the front fender well are SM legal.
If it isn't legal I don't think it would need much to make it legal.
My goal would be to run with NASA most likely if their cage requirements happen to be different. Currently been doing HPDE and track days with just a roll bar so not up to speed with W2W requirements exactly.
I did find pictures of other cages that have the braces going forward to the firewall, so that's probably OK. There could be a knee bar out of sight in the dashboard.
Assuming that there's a knee bar behind the dash (and there probably is) that should be legal
johndej said:My goal would be to run with NASA most likely if their cage requirements happen to be different. Currently been doing HPDE and track days with just a roll bar so not up to speed with W2W requirements exactly.
Find your local NASA tech inspection shop and pay for a tech inspection of the vehicle and its logbook. It has a logbook right? The cage has been drilled to check for correct tubing? A good cage will save your life, do not scrimp here as if the cage is not legal it will end up costing you more. I can say that I do not like the mounting plates for the bottom of the cage on the lower sill. It intrudes into the passenger space and you will smack the E36 M3 out of your ankle on at some point just trying to put your foot on the dead pedal.
Different method for the mounting plate.
In reply to mattm :
Oh for sure will get a certified shop to give it a look. Just trying to get a feel for things. No log book as it was built ~10 years ago, then just used for driving events, and never got as far as racing according to owner. It's a ~5.5 hr drive one way to lay eyes in it so wanted to see what the hive thought before committing to a trip.
johndej said:In reply to mattm :
Oh for sure will get a certified shop to give it a look. Just trying to get a feel for things. No log book as it was built ~10 years ago, then just used for driving events, and never got as far as racing according to owner. It's a ~5.5 hr drive one way to lay eyes in it so wanted to see what the hive thought before committing to a trip.
If it never got a logbook then you need to assume the cage is junk and needs to be comletely replaced. From experience, I have seen 'close' cages WITH old logbooks not pass. Those were cars that were certainly legal at one point and have race history and they did not pass. A caged car without a logbook is a pig in a poke. Pay accordingly.
The design look like most I've seen. There is probably a dash bar buried in behind the dash, that is the easiest way to do one in a Miata.
You need to confirm the wall thickness and if it is made from DOM tubing or ERW. If the current owner can't confirm the material you can clean the paint off the main hoop and look for signs of a dark blue line the runs the length of the tube. If you find one that means it is ERW and that might be a problem. You would have to check the GCR to see what the SCCA says about ERW tubing, they used to allow it. I never use it so I don't keep track of the special requirements.
At a first glance it looks pretty good. At a minimum, all of the holes around the package shelf and firewall will have to be closed up to pass tech.
If you have any intention of racing it, now is a great time to get acquainted with the GCR. The requirements for roll cages are spelled out very clearly there, among other things. Read it, learn it, love it. There is some very specific language about the down bars from the main hoop and it differs a bit between NASA and SCCA.
https://nasa-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/document/document/282/2021.8.3.pdf
Years ago you could use either 1.5" x 0.095" or 1.5" x 0.125" depending if you were building a 1.6 or 1.8. We always built with 0.125" tubing just to be safe.
The drivers side front floor mount shown is known as a "heel breaker" because the sharp corner is VERY unforgiving in an accident if/when your foot starts flailing around. It's the easy way to do it, but I prefer to blend them into the inner rocker and sill.
Bars are allowed forward to the firewall and Mazda conveniently put a small chassis brace in an ideal spot to mount them.
You'll need to log in to post.
