S&W Roll Cage
 

Wondering if anyone out there Installed a S&W roll cage in a FC?

Yes.

Our Lemons Team has installed two of them into two different FC's.

^^^ Its a really good deal on the cage. A couple years ago on Black Sunday they offered free shipping and we got the first cage for super cheap. Thats coming up pretty soon so maybe they will do it again.... Anyhoo, I still don't like the main hoop design:

1. Its not tall enough and when the halo is fitted, there isn't much room for a tall (6' +) driver. Our solution was to build up the floor a little with plates under the main hoop.

2. The main hoop has minimal bends (which is kind of good) but it curves in from the widest part of the door line in to the thickest part of the floor (where the frame reinforcements box tubes are under the car). Problem is that it does not allow for a second door bar to be mounted easily. Our solution was to X it as best as we could but the bottom part of the X curves in and touches the seat.

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a70...s/102_0101.jpg

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a70...s/102_0102.jpg

YOU ARE THE MAN!!!! Perfect Perfect. Im going to put it in a Convertible so with the hoop being kinda short is good thats what my hope was for. And for the ends of the main hoop swooping in thats perfect to B/c its going to be a complete interior car, wit hit "normal" it would be a PITA putting the walls of the interior in. im 6'1 its tight without a cage lol

That cage is dodgy as, fuk having main hoop that far away from body and side bars touching the seat.

just have a good shop build you a custom cage. the fitment is 100% better

Its Fine. Its not for SCCA so i wont have door bars like that. The hoop hooks to the frame. I think its better than just to the floor pan.

On our other car - we ran the two door bars in parallel about 1" apart from each other. It didn't intrude into the car like the X-design I tried does in the pic. The parallel bars formed more of a SUPER door bar than two door bars.

Yeah - but your mom likes it.

does it pass your local scca? my local scca chapter said it wouldnt pass. S&W sent me a drawing for there main hoop design and it had 220deg total bends in the main hoop.

-Jacob

^^^ Ive never seen a drawing of the RX7 specific cage. They give you a set of generic instructions with the cage that aren't much help.

I only race Lemons and I don't have any interest in SCCA. I don't know what they will accept.

Agreed.... the main hoop should practically touch the body on the sides.

But then I like to see cages that are plated to the A-pillars and B-pillars. Who cares about if the interior fits? It's a rollcage.

^^^ On the other cage not in the picure, we did plate the hoop to the B pillar.

I do like that the hoop rests on the frame reinforcement rather than coming straight down to the sheet metal.

We have our reasons for keeping the skins in the doors since its a Lemons car. We want to be able to roll the windows up when we add an air conditioner that runs on small gasoline motor mounted in the hatch. :D

I would fail that in NASA.

X2 + 1000% safer.

Autopower and other "Bolt-in" cages are horrible IMO. You are better off not having a cage for all intents and purposes.

[QUOTE=7dust;10331081We have our reasons for keeping the skins in the doors since its a Lemons car. We want to be able to roll the windows up when we add an air conditioner that runs on small gasoline motor mounted in the hatch. :D[/QUOTE]

Lemons car? And you're bothering with a rollcage?

Just bend an old fence over the top of the car and call it good.

Peejay, Im keeping all my interior in my Vert. In a way the S&W cage is good it goes to the rails but on the other hand it looks sketchy lol.

THIS IS NOT A NASA CAR, NSCRA, I Go in straight lines...NHRA will approve this cage.

With that being said..again, J.T.P said the vert main hoop has to be, width is 48" and height is 40" So all i need to do is find a main hoop that fits them demensions and the rest is cake work

Just as easy to die going in a straight line as it is turning, going around in circles or sliding. Look closely and you will see how well a bolted in cage (bolted to the floorpan) works on a car in a roll over...

http://cache-01.gawkerassets.com/ass...0/mcrash09.jpg

That channel steel under the passenger spots on the FC is not good for anything other than keeping the floorpan straight under the seat. It has ZERO structural integrity. Don't believe me? Try jacking on it once. Structurally it is basically cantilevered rearward out from the front clip frame horns. it does not tie into anything structurally behind the seat.

That cage is SUPER dangerous. For multiple reasons.

Again you are better off just depending on the stock safety restrain systems as they are all designed to work together, even in a roll over.

The ugly truth is, in amateur racing, there are far more bad cages out there than good ones.

^^^ I think its fine. All of the car's structural integrity from Mazda is intact in addition to the cage. Also, to be fair, we did not install the additional main hoop reinforcing "legs" supplied. Here is a generic photo of the cage from S&W which they supply regardless of the application:

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a70...haos/CAGE2.jpg

S&W supplies a few extra tubes to make a second drivers door bar and main hoop diagonal to make the cage Lemons-Compliant. You have to kind of figure it out yourself and we figured it out the best we could considering we had limited time and resources. Having no mandrel bender around also was probably the biggest deciding factor. :)

I think I could make a better cage than the ones I got from S&W but not for the money I spent and the time it took.

Of course I'd race cageless, helmetless, seatbeltless, sitting on a 5 gallon bucket, roof of the car cut off, and naked wearing sunscreen for a fire suit if they would let me. :D

The problem is the stock safety system in a rollover crash is designed to deal with the roof being crushed, in that the seat back will go flat and the persons torso will be forced inward

If you are doing a bar for a vert , assuming it's not for racing. PLEASE, have one custom made that:
1) is a max of 180° in total bends for the main B-pillar hoop.

2) has a continuous cross bar from the top of the driver side to the bottom of the passenger side.

3) is welded to the frame of the car (the rased area that flows up from the rocker panel frame area is structural) It has a flat surface perfect for a nice big plate.

4) has 2 runners back to the shock towers, 1 for each side

Also, dont use a harness or an aftermarket seat unless you install a FULL cage. The exception would be a 4-point Schroth harness that has a breakaway inside shoulder belt. In the case of the later have a bar welded at the proper height onto the rollbar. There is no exception to the race seat rule. A non tilt back race seat should only be used with a FULL proper cage..

I emailed, and called iirc, they sent me a single drawing of the main hoop which was my primary concern

pm me your email addy and if i can find it ill send it your way

-Jacob