I guess I'll take some pics, I am feeling like I really skimped on mine, but at the time I thought I was building something pretty nice:(

Hey jimeby, where is the car going to run at? Are you running mini stocks somewhere or are you doing an enduro? I have many years running stock cars, started in mini stocks with a rx2 and ran 2 r100's in open comp dirt with big cars.

I really loved running rotaries on circle tracks, blew aloy of peoples minds.

That's a pretty nice looking kit cage, aside from the diagonal being on the wrong side. I too am curious since I'll probably be building a circle track FB soon (with Miata powerplant) for a series called Texas ProSedan. The rules are pretty nifty... unlimited mods within the "family", which means I need to find the biggest brakes Mazda ever made. :D

Actually the diaginal is still effective from that side. The diaginal is there to keep the rectangle box from collasping or moving from sisde to side. I have seen lots of Stock car cages built that way with good success.

Still need more info!

here ya go, I plan on augmenting the cage w/gussetts, vertical door bars, and a cross brace from rear tower to rear tower, and up to the main hoop. I screwed up the dash bar which comes standard, and will add that as well. Suggestions welcome. This is a basic Kirk cage, 1.5"x.120 DOM. Here are some links, I'm having a hard day ;)
http://www.teamfc3s.org/forum/member...=t&img_id=4607
http://www.teamfc3s.org/forum/member...=t&img_id=4605
http://www.teamfc3s.org/forum/member...=t&img_id=4606
http://www.teamfc3s.org/forum/member...=t&img_id=4608
http://www.teamfc3s.org/forum/member...=t&img_id=8054
http://www.teamfc3s.org/forum/member...=t&img_id=6999
http://www.teamfc3s.org/forum/member...=t&img_id=8051
http://www.teamfc3s.org/forum/member...=t&img_id=8053

Sorry for the click fest, I had to use some old stuff that was too large. Carl

O'k I screwed up again, now they are too small. I'll fix them later. ARGHHHH!

I built the cage per CSC's plan as far as the diaginal is concerned. I don't know why it would make a difference one way or the other since it's just triangulating the main hoop... but I'm just an amature at building these things. I think the worst thing I did was put the dash bar under the steering column. Many rules specify that the dash bar be above the steering column. We're planning to run some "hornet" classes in the area. These classes require the stock dash be in place. To put the dash bar above, I would have had to move the A-piller legs way back. So, I chose the lesser of the two evils. It turns out the dash bar is higher than the lower portion of the dash anyhow.

As far as where we are racing.... the easy answer is: everywhere we can! We plan to race enduro's and hornet classes at Monroe primarily. Hornets are pure stock 4 cylinder cars. Remove the interior, knock the glass out and put in some crash support bars. I went pretty overboard with the cage and all, but ya gotta have a hobby! I just heard that Skagit Speedway is starting a hornet class on their clay oval. I haven't seen the rules yet, but if possible, we'll head up there for a little dirty fun.
Our first planned race is the March 12 300 lap enduro at Monroe.

Thanks Jimeby for the pm. I am glad to hear not all circle tracks have banned the Rotary, ever though you have to run completely stock. Some of my best racing I did was in a R100 with a P Port 12A with a Weber IDA. Car weighed 1800lbs, great HP to weight ratio.

All the tracks I raced at in the late 80's and early 90's banned the ported rotaries after they penalized us with 1.5 lbs per CC.

Good luck with your Enduro in March. I used to love doing those here at the old Portland Speedway and South Sound Speedway in Tenino, Wa.

i guess drag racers get no love in here.thats cool . i see how it is ..
ill just keep my other 2 solo and GT vw cage pics to myself. :p:
heres my newest solo car but like the soup nazzi no cages for you!!

heres one more this my rabbit drag car ...if you ask nice and someone will tell me why all these cages go to the strut towers ill post all my other cars cage pics :rlaugh:
just kidding

I started the thread to see all the Cages, even drag cages. Show me!

Russ, comments on my cage? I shared, your turn...

Carl, there are a couple of minor things I would have done differently, and they all revolve around the tubes coming together at a common node.
I'm glad to see an X in the rear, but I would have cut off the rear speaker support and attached the tube right to the top of the spring perch. Then when that tube hits the main hoop, it's better to have it supported by another tube on the other side. Right now your X bars and your over-door bars hit the main hoop at different locations.
The same is true for your door intrusion bars where they hit they attach, the next tube is ~6" away.
I really like where the main hoop attaches at the bottom, right on the meaty section of the frame. Kudos :)
All IMHO, of course.

Wabbit... running the rear hoop braces down to the strut towers and triangulating the rear bars is a big advantage in road racing. The loads of the suspension are transferred through the cage. Basically, the cage acts as a big strut bar.

The strut towers are built to withstand plenty of force.... I would say that on some cars, they're a little stronger than the actual frame rails.

I like to tie into both whenever possible.

Now, lets see those drag cages!!!

Agreed, as I said I am adding a strut brace triangulated with the main hoop. I knew of the problem with the "X", and the down bars, but I did not want to cut off the roof, or cut the floor. I will be gussetting the cage to the car, sce the car will never run IT, this should help with the shortcomings you identified. I will also have a dash bar. I left the speaker enclosures to give me a solid mounting place for the bulkhead that will seperate my fuel system from the rest of the car. Thanks for your input, Carl

I like, hard to really see everything since pictures are so small. Like the main hoop, I prefer to run to bars back to the rear frame section and then add the x in the middle of that.

I also like to attached the rear support tubes to the same area of the main hoop where the halo mounts to. Like to keep everything flowing if you will, kind of a compression thing. Drag race guys do not believe in that theory and that is ok with me. We all have our own ideas, plus they are working around big tubs in back!

I do not see any problem with running the rears bars to where you have placed them. They are attached using a plate welded to the top of the uni-body frame. Also provides protection for the rear suspension and fuel tank.

Most people really flame me on the forums because I do different stuff also. They believe the rear bars must be attached to the rear shocks towers. Shock towers are really not that strong but are multi angled which does help for strength. I try to tie the rear supports to the frame adjacent to the towers to catch both. You can use the rear part of the triangulation of the cage to support the shock towers from flexing. Most of the load is on the rear crossmember mounts anyway and the shocks aren't holding much weight unless you are using coilovers.

Think of a cage as a shock absorber, hit one part of the cage and try to get the shock loads to travel throughout the cage to the other side or away from the driver and leave enough room for the crush factor.

Most cages are really over engineered which is what we are striving for and also to keep the frame ridgid so the suspension works to its full potential.

Cage looks tight and well thought out, hopefully you will never have to test it!



What class are you running this in?

jimeby, ask your cage kit fabricator which installation direction of the main hoop diagonal offers MORE PROTECTION to the driver. As you have it mounted per their instructions high end of diagonal to the passengers side or high end of the diagonal to the drivers side. Have ya ever viewed a nascar car that came down on the passengers side main hoop upper corner where there is no diagonal as compared to when the same type car comes down on the drivers side main hoop uper corner where the main hoop diagonal is?

Driver safety first........
David Dewhurst

Hi David and All:
Since this issue was brought to my attention by Chris, I've been looking into the issue. I sent email to CSC but haven't heard back yet. I know my (now gone) super late model stock car, a pro build Port City chassis, had the cross bar as mine is installed. I also see that Lefthander late model chassis are built both ways depending on the chassis model. The offset chassis is like mine and the perimeter chassis is the opposite. Having said that, I see that Skagit Speedway, a local dirt track that we were hoping to race at (until they outlawed rotaries) requires the cross bar to be high on the left.
I feel the weakest link in the main hoop is the bend that is half way up the legs of the hoop. If the cage is going to crush, that's where I feel it'll bend. If the cross tube is at the top left, it will not hold the top of the hoop up... I feel it will simply rotate down with the top corner of the cage as the center of the leg bends out and the top corner comes down. On my car, the left leg of the hoop has a bit more help by the seat belt bar... but I don't know if it's significant. I'll be phoning CSC if I don't hear back from them soon to get their opinion.
I appreciate hearing your opinions... you're making me think about my decisions and that's what makes racing fun for me... especially since I don't get to drive much.
Cheers,
Jim

Russ, the car is NASA Super Unlimited/ SCCA SPO if I feel like being beat up ;)

Did you take the cage to the front of the car and if so, post some pics please.

No, not yet, when I did the cage, I thought I would be able to get it into ITE(thus the six point). Eventually I will do that, and triangulate the front towers, maybe front half the car. Aero is my next big project though, I plan on creating a special flat bottom with diffussers front, and rear, my own design, let's call it a "Drop Bottom" Carl

Our Regions ITE rule says must meet or exceed the SCCA 8 pt rule, that opens the door to allow other tub based race cars a place to race like world challange cars. Double check yours, maybe it says the same.

Yo Dudes:
The cage builder (CSC) agrees that the diagonal bar should be high above the driver and low at the passenger side and mine is in backwards. Dang. But, I did build it according to the plan that I received with the kit.
He made a couple suggestions. His preference was to add a bar from the passenger side rear spring pocket up to the drivers side main hoop corner. His second choice would be to "X" the main hoop. His last choice would be to cut the diagonal out and replace it with one the other way.
I'm still in denial so it'll take a while for me to decide what to do about it... I have the car almost ready to race and just don't want to go back into it to make cage mods. Plus, I've seen plenty of much faster cars built each way. Once I get over my denial, I'll decide what to do.
Cheers,
Jim

Make an X, easier!

Yeah, nothing wrong with just X-ing that diagonal, much easier than cutting, and it's the safest deal all around.