I guess I just need to find the right wrench. Thats exactily what I tried and I could get nowhere close to getting the wrench around the bolt.

 

It was pretty drastic, but it is not an exact number. The hatch weighed less than oem and the lexan saved a crap load of weight. I also removed the wiper, 3rd brake light, shocks, and all of the unnecessary plastic.

 

Well, guys, I am 6'4" tall and I have had my Kirk roll bar installed in my car since last August. I needed it (required) for the class of open road racing that I compete in, but my car is still streetable.

I found that I lost about 4 inches of seat travel with the stock seats. Yikes! No way I could drive the car comfortably that way. My solution was to get an aftermarket seat (Corbeau FX-1) and hand-fabricate some seat brackets to get the seat: 1) so that the door would close without hitting the seat shoulder wings; 2) so that the seat would go back far enough; 3) so that I could sit in the seat with a helmet on and not hit my head on the headliner.

It wasn't easy, but it got done. Thankfully, my primary passenger (my wife), is only 5"5" tall and is comfortable with the relatively upright position forced on her by the bar on the passenger side.

I also had issues getting everything to fit, but in the end, the fit was pretty good. I also had to have my mounting plates made larger than normal to conform to the rules of the SSCC (the open road racing sanctioning body), and Kirk was very accomodating. Two thumbs up for Kirk.

 

Roll bar does look good... I have one major concern though: the harness bar looks low IMO. Maybe its the pics, maybe its the extreme upright of the passenger seat, but the angle on those straps looks to be very close to being too steep. I'm thinking a bar connecting the rear legs, just above those speakers, might have been a better place. Sure, it would have been a little farther back, but the 'angle of attack' of the straps would be more level.

Just my 2 cents

Stacy King
HPDE Coordinator
Triangle Z Club / Tarheel Sports Car Club
www.timetrials.net

 

Ugh. I think Stacy's right. As I recall reading recently (although could be wrong), its recommended to be no more than 10 degree down angle. There is one picture I'm thinking of in particular that looks like its closer to 45 degrees. I'm not aware of the physics as to why, but here's a link direct from sparco... Down angle of shoulder belts should be 5 degrees or less

http://www.sparcousa.com/resourceFiles/16.pdf

Bummer. Wonder if there is a way to add another bar or have Kirk redesign to accomodate...

ahm

 

I don't know the physics either, but the reasoning is that at a severe mounting angle, the shoulder straps will essentially pull down on the shoulders in a frontal impact. Seat guides help, but my guess is seats aren't designed to take top-down forces and could buckle under extreme conditions... so in theory, your spine would be compressed, potentially causing very serious injury and probably death.

I'd be very surprised if Kirk did not take this into consideration when making it, but I'd like to know what seats were used when they test fitted this bar before production (and we hope they didn't just throw something together that fit just to put it on the market.)

Stacy

 

Stacy's right... Her explanation is almost a direct quote from the pdf link, which happens to be authored (at least copyrighted) by the SFI.

I think what might help clarify this would be if any of you with the bar installed could post a picture with you sitting in the car, harness on. That should help clarify if the bar is actually OK, and the seat's guide holes (and the seat itself) are just too tall, or whether the bar really is too low. Any takers?

ahm

 

Damn, I thought all this was behind me from my tt.net days!
I'M A GUY !!!

amolaver... easy mistake to make - Il'l forgive you this time - but if you ever see me, there will be NO mistake LOL

-Stacy King
Male HPDE Coordinator
Triangle Z Club / Tarheel Sports Car Club
www.timetrials.net

 

Doh! Never met a male Stacy before... You should keep that slightly modified sig

Sorry 'bout that...

ahm

 

LOL - no problem... here are a few you may (or may not) have heard of:

Stacy Peralta: Surf/Skate/indie film pioneer
Stacey King: Former Oklahoma(I think) basketball player
Stacey Keach: Actor

Just pickin'

 

How the heck did you guys get this thing installed? It is in but I can't push the bar to where the horizontal piece is against the rear speakers. Any suggestions? It is snug against the top as well. Do I just need to force it back?

 

^^^There's a bunch of ways to get it in and get it close to where it needs to be, but there is only one way to do it right. I followed the Kirk Racing directions. Take out the seats and center console, move steering wheel all the way down, etc. I remember that the bar that goes along the roof has to start out on the dash crammed up all the way against the windhield. The rest I don't really remember.

 

yeah i have the bar in the car....just not all the way back. Just want to make sure I am doing it right cause the bar is rubbing pretty bad against the roof.

 

Can someone post a pic of where the bottom legs go? I really am having a hard time sliding this thing in place. It is already in the car, I just can't get it all the way back to where it is supposed to be.

 

?

 

Hey Matt.

You have to peel back that carpet so it sits flat against the back and the leg will sit definitely flat on the drivers side and slightly raised on the passenger side till you use the bolts to torque it down. Do you have the carpet peeled back yet? If so, we'll troubleshoot from there.

Greg

 

I have not peeled any carpet back....we are talking about the floor of the car correct...not in the hatch area? I knew about the rear but not about the floor where the seats go. So I should remove the carpet behind each seat?

 

Yes, remove the carpet to get the legs of the bar where they are supposed to be. Once you peel back the carpet you will see the area that they are supposed to go. Then once the bar is in, cut the carpet to fit around the bar.

 

Updating an old thread here to bring some attention hopefully to this product. I called Kirk this morning and spoke to them who quoted me ~$800 shipped for their 4-point. It seems back a few years ago this bar was priced almost half of the quoted price as of today (May 2020). I did not ask why the price went up but I assume due to demand and supplies being more expensive they increased the price. I am still debating not if but when I am going to purchase this bolt in bar.

 

They probably have quit making this product due to the age of the car and produce-on-demand. Same thing happened to me this year when I ordered a Fast Intentions tdx.