Roll Bar in a street car discussion Options

[Scott S]

Hi All. I posted this over on Pelican, thought it might be relevant here too.

I know there have been many discussions on the safety putting a roll bar/cage in a street driven car. I am not a racer, so it really didn't pertain to me at all. However, yesterday I saw first hand the injuries that can occur.

16 year old girl driving her dads Miata with him in the passenger seat. There is speculation that she was driving on her permit, practicing for her drivers license. She was driving at a slow speed, simply making a right hand turn on to a side street. She clipped the curb - something we all have done. Curb was tall enough that it shook the car pretty good (again, speculation, but knowing the corner I would guess a wheel would have been bent and the car knocked out of alignment ).

Both are in the hospital with concussions, one of them needed several stiches from injuries caused by their heads impacting the roll bar.

I don't know if the dad autocrossed the car or what, or if the bar was just for looks. I do know the car had stock seat belts.

Scary stuff.

[mgp4591]

If your head hits metal at speed, any metal, it's not good. Thank heavens I had my helmet on - thank you Shoei.
Is there a standard for foam density when covering a roll bar? I have an idea of what I'd want - possibly something around the compression factor of a wrestling mat but if there's a race approved density factor that is a standard out there, that's what I would want. Cover it with Alcantara if you want for a finished appeal or something of your liking and you'd be set!