I'm looking for increased safety for DE-4 and possible time trials. The car is also a daily driver.

Current routine is to put race seat in for track weekends and use it with OEM 3 pt. This works fine but would like to step it up a bit.

The car has to remain a daily driver for now. Dedicated track car is not an option.

Have looked at harness bars vs roll cage. Have seen every post on the internet regarding pros and cons.

The information I need now relates to position and clearances of a Kirk bolt in rollbar.The two critical things have to do with how far forward the hoop is located and whether or not the bar prevents the seat from going all the way back. I'm tall and seat has to be all the way back in the OEM seat but not quite all the way back in the race seat.

If the hoop is located back far enough behind the headrest then I think it would be safe enough (with padding) to use in a daily driver since there would not be much way for my head to hit it in a street accident. What I need is a measurement of the space between the top edge of the rear window _glass_ to the Kirk roll bar hoop. This should tell me what I need to know in terms of using it in a DD.

Finally, I need to know how much limitation there is on the seat going back, if any.

This info would be extremely helpful. Thanks in advance.

 

Well you will be cramped with a stock seat, with my race seat installed I have a lot more room. I run a Corbeau FX1 pro on my drivers side. I would post specs, but I'm kinda far away from my car right now.

 

It's just the passenger side that loses space isn't it?

 

That's what I have heard too.

 

It loses a lot of space on the pass side

 

I Googled some images of the Kirk in the 350z. There weren't many but it looks like the hoop is directly over the OEM headrest with the seat all the way back.

I do not think this would be a safe option for street use.

Will think some more about a harness bar. I know the potential issues. It really just comes down to which is safer: Time trials/DE4 with OEM configuration or harness bar/proper harnesses and race seat. I'm not sure anyone knows the answer.

I do see a good many time trialers in NASA with harness bars. but a fair number with OEM 3pt too. Some w/ full cages.

 

Custom roll bar, plenty of clearance between head and bar, proper roll over protection = best of both worlds.

 

I agree.
George, give Chris at www.competitioncages.com a call. He is in Hillsborough, NC, so not too far from you. He has done several 350Z's, so is extremely familiar with the car. He could do it so that if you wanted to go full cage later, you would be half-way there already
Also, his prices are VERY good

 

The passenger side loses a ton of room for sure from the cross bar

I am 5'11, with recaro spg, and I can put my seat far enough back where my legs are full extension when depressing the clutch pedal (I don't do this). For the fatter stock seats it has less clearance, but I don't remember exactly.

 

Thanks guys. I never considered a custom bar. Crawford, I'll definitely check with Competition Cages.

Ray, thanks for the reply, that helps too.

 

2000atlanticgt, do you use your car as a daily driver at all?

 

I have a few cars so none of them are really daily drivers, but yes my Z gets driven on the street a lot including to work on some days.

These photos are not the best but you get the idea of how far back the main roll bar is located.

This first picture I'm in the passenger side seat looking backwards behind the driver's seat so keep in mind it is on a slight angle, but it is 6" from front side of seat to the bar (6" or more from my head to the roll bar)



Here are a couple photos showing where the bar is in relation to the side window like you had asked for. The bar is just behind the OEM seat belts and just in front of the side window by maybe 1/2".

 

Couple photos of the interior to get an idea of the roll bar location.

Hope these photos help, as it took me a long time to decide what I wanted to do (harness bar, Kirk, custom, etc) before I ever made the decision to go with a custom roll bar and I could not be happier.

 

Thanks for taking the time to post those pics. That set up would work perfectly for me but probably out of my price range. That looks like very nice work and is ideal for double duty.

 

I know custom setups will always cost a bit different for every car but if you don't mind sharing what was roughly the cost of your setup?

 

You are correct, depending on your requests custom setups can vary a lot in price. For the roll bar only, headliner and all interior already removed, just the bar was ~$1800. I had the head liner removed, to get the roll bar as high as possible, then had an interior shop cut the head liner in two pieces (in front and behind the bar), add bracing to mount the 2 piece headliner, cover it in Alcantara, then resinstall it along with trim all the other interior pieces to fit around the roll bar...that was more money than the roll bar so again just depends on how you want to do it.

I worked on a 370Z SCCA T3 race car with some friends and for a complete SCCA T3 spec cage in that car that we had already removed everything out of was ~$3000 from the same shop.

 

2000atlanticgt, I got a quote from your guy in Atlanta and it was $2500 start to finish. Seeing how good yours looks I think that is a fair price, but way beyond what I can afford to spend at this point. Plus, my car has been wrecked (VIR), the interior has been pulled out and reinstalled a few times and certainly doesn't have that new car feel anymore so I don't need mine to look as good as yours does.

The shop that Crawford referred to just replied and his quote is around $700 and he is familiar with what it takes to get the bar as far back as I want it. A Kirk bolt in bar, which will not work in my case is $400+. The 'K' style harness bar (which would be the only harness bar I'd even consider) is $400.



So $700 for a custom bar which allows me to fit in the car and still use it as a daily driver sounds pretty darn good to me.

 

Yeah, $700 for a custom roll bar sound really good. Make sure you post photos when it is done. I would love to see how he decides to do it.

 

Well, I poked around in the car this afternoon and to get the hoop back far enough (for me) the legs of the hoop would have to go down through the box with the speakers and storage compartments. The seat has to be all the way back against the speaker box for me to fit. I think that there would have to be some serious "plastic" surgery and probably some sheet metal removal (I don't know what it looks like under there...never had the speaker box assembly out.)

I don't think I can get a roll bar in this car and still be able to fit.

I haven't given up completely but from what I can see it doesn't look good.

And if I can't get a roll bar in it I have to decide what is safer in a time trial car: complete stock oem safety system or harness bar+harness+race seat. Tough call.

 

Wish I had more pictures from the install, but my roll bar down bars do not go to the floor behind the seat, they go through the speaker box area along the B-pillar. The installer cut back a section of the speaker box sheet metal to allow them access to the base of the floor under the speaker box area then stitch welded that piece they took out back in place. If position my seats back as far as possible, will get closer to the roll bar, but will contact the floor sheet metal before it hits the roll bar. This photo is looking at the passenger side which is back a little further than the driver's side.