Show me your roll cage to suspension tower bracing, ..and other bracing/stiffening you've done Options

[naro914]

with all the work we're doing on Papa Smurf, one of big pieces of the development is tying the roll cage to the rear and front suspension points, plus doing tubing to strengthen other points around the car.

Would like to see how people run the tubes from the roll cage, through the fire wall or window, through the engine compartment area, into the rear trunk to the shock towers. We have things in the way there, but will move around if needed....

Thanks!

[GregAmy]

For reference, I'm an SCCA scrutineer.

What caught my eye on this was that the rear braces do not appear to go up to within 6" of the top of the main hoop. The purpose of those rear bars is to ensure the integrity of the main hoop in case the world turns upside down on you. The braces you have there will support the bottom half of the main hoop, but that leaves the top half vulnerable to collapse.

There are two ways to resolve this:

- Run rear tubes that start within 6" of the top of the main hoop, and run the tubes through a polycarbonate rear window; see second part of GCR 9.4.c.2.e, quoted below.

- If you don't want to run a poly rear windows, then follow first half of GCR 9.4.c.2.e that you quoted above, by adding plates to attach the cage to shoulder harness mounting points and adding a Petty Bar, from the top of the cage just to the right side of the driver's head (with sufficient clearance) down to the mounting plate for the right front leg.

The first option is the more common and traditional method for "real" race cars, and allows you to continue that tube to strategic rear points on the chassis; that's the way my race car was built by Chris Foley. See attached.

But maybe it's a dual-mission car and you don't want to run poly rear glass and/or cut into the car? Then you can use a Petty bar and the additional tab mounts as required. That Bar can also be sleeved to make it removable for the dual-mission, just ensure you make some kind of padded cap to go over the studs for safety in a road accident.

GA

Alternatively, the rear window may be removed and a clear, lexan replacement
installed. The rear cage braces may pass through this replacement window and through the engine cover or bodywork to allow connection to the frame or unibody. Such allowances shall be noted on the car’s specification line.