Autopower just released their rollbar/cage for the 350Z. What does everyone think of the design? It seems very clean to me with the rear legs following the trunkline and the sides behind the pillars. They have the option to have the diagonal and harness bar removable. The only downside to this is that it is a weld in.
I'm heavily leaning towards this. Does anyone have any comments or concerns about the design?

 

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If the cage was a bolt in and you didnt want to hack up the car, it would be ok. But if it has to be welded in, then design of the front part of the cage sucks, The front down tubes (a-pillar bars) should be further forward and go throught the dash pad to the floor to provide forward impact protection further forward and make it easier to get in/out. If you are going to go with a weld in cage, you might as well have someone build a custom cage for the car, it will fit better, be safer and weight less than the Autopower.

 

Sorry I wasn't clear. Only the rollbar portion is a weld in. The front cage forward of the rollbar is bolt in.
I would only be getting the rollbar.
I really wish they made a bolt in. I didn't want to do a weld in because down the road it will be a pain to take out when I sell the car.

 

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If you just want a bolt-in half cage, then there are other options, check some of the previous post on this board. Or just have a custom one built, plenty of good places in So Cal to have this type of work done

 

I would second the comment about going custom if you are doing a full cage. You need to move the A pillar section forward, and the eyebrow bar needs to be pushed forward where it does not interfere with the rear view mirror, probably curving just behind the windscreen so that you can still mount the mirror in the same relative position, but off the bar.
It is an intriguing system and obviously has some strong points going for it, but for the delta in cost, going custom affords much better protection and looks. Just my pov, however.

 

Since the rear is already a weld-in, I would go with a custom since a good cagebuilder can get the bars closer to the headliner as possible, and make minor adjustments for your specific needs.

 

It looks like the bars that follow the hatch lines terminate on the strut pillar structure. 1) is that a strong enough spot (as opposed to welding with reinforcement plates to the unibody)? You can't see the construction of the attachment there, so I'm definately not saying its *NOT* strong enough, just asking.

2) Don't the vertical bars behind the seats interfere with seat travel? I'll have to look at my seat position when in 'track' mode, but I don't think I have tons of extra room back there - similar problems to my SpecMiata cage.

3) Will they sell the back half by itself? Perhaps in the future I will make it a dedicated track car, but since I do drive it on the street regularly, the front portion of the cage isn't isolated enough from passengers to be safe (IMO) - you have the old head hits the cage w/o a helmet argument.

 

Yes they do sell the back half by itself. That is what I will probably be getting. They told me that they used the points that they felt were the strongest. They told me they weren't able to find any stong enough points to make it a bolt in for whatever that's worth. I don't think any of the bolt in's are attached directly to the unibody. The kirk for example is bolted just in front of the strut tower bar. It doesn't seem like the strongest place to me either but I've been told by many that this is a standard practice.

Not sure if the verticle bar limits seat travel. It looks like it's out of the way but I guess it's hard to tell by the picture. I haven't heard anyone else with rollbars complain about this. I know most of the designs that are out there cuts into the passenger seat travel.

 

I'm finding that custom setups run over $1200 here in the bay area. The autopower is less than half of that. What are the things that you guys are seeing that could be done better about this setup? I am talking only about the rollbar portion behind the drivers seat. Is there anything that is unsafe? The autopower sits further back than the kirk bar does and would be more out of the way for me at 6' 1".
Can someone give specifics of what they would do differently in custom setup?

 

Personally, I like the back half of it. I'd like it if they could minimize the seat travel reduction as much as possible (ie, more than they have), but other than that, I think the back half looks fairly nice. John is right that a custom builder will be able to get the bars much closer to the roofliner, but in the back, I'm not sure it would be worth it. How much do they get for just the back?

ahm

 

Well, maybe two things after looking at it again.

1) If you can live with it, perhaps put cross bracing (an 'X') between the two bars run from the rear strut bar to the vertical pieces.

2) Cross brace from the harness bars back to the strut bar.

Both of these will seriously impact the practicality of the car (upper braces will seriously limit what little rearward vision there is through the hatch, harness bar to strut towers will kill any usage of the trunk space), but both should make it much stronger.

ahm

 

John - do you have any pics of your tubing? Sounds dirty, doesn't it?

 

I don't have any more photos other than the ones that I posted up on my silly cardomain page linked in my sig.

 

San Francisco is so darn expensive for everything. I am getting quotes of over $1000 just to install the autopower. I might be holding off and going custom some time down the road.

 

Which Cobra seat is that in the picture above?