cusco has those weird bends by the footwell that scare me.im 6'2 and a half and i have plenty of clearance in my z with the auto power 6 point and stock seats.

 

Cause it's useless GayDM crap. It is probably recommended not to track a car or drive it with that waxer bar thing installed


You would have to be a complete and total idiot to order a Cusco blue interior decoration. I believe only the most dedicated GayDM fanboys are dumb enough to order it.

 

lots of people in socal have em terrasmak and daily drive there car. would hate to see what happens when u smash ur head against one of those. at least with my 4 point i dont have to worry about hitting my head on a metal bar ever.

 

This isnt the first time i have heard this, and i really know very little on how to determine engineering "strength" from one cage to another. I know a couple people that have these in their drift cars, some of which have added door bars to them as well as other things. I guess my main question, which i never really get a straight answer for, is what specifically about the cusco makes it so bad??

Another thing about the Cusco is that some people say that they are designed for RHD cars therefore not being as structurally sound to protect a driver provided that he is on the LH side. This makes sense to me...but dont know if there is any truth to it.

I have heard that they are not certified or allowed in any form of racing in the USA that requires the need for a cage, but this is all just hear-say that i keep reading about. I was under the impression that ANY bolt in cage fails at meeting the requirements for any form of racing requiring a roll cage..is this not true?


DD'ing any car with anything more than a 4 point isnt really the brightest idea in the world but alot of people still do it. Specially without putting some sort of padding on the cage, which im pretty sure alot of tracks require...i know sac raceway does, within the drivers reach everything requires padding.

 

Now I am hardly an expert, but I have recently been researching and here is my understanding of it.

As far as why cusco cages are unsafe... 1) the bars are made of chromoly which I believe is not able to be used anymore by some sanctioning organizations. I believe you need DOM Steel and thicker tubing due to the weight of our cars (>3000lbs) 2) There is no cross bar that is required for sideways roll over protection. (this is the diagonal bar seen in the AutoPower Race Roll Bar). 3) There are bends in axially loaded structural members which form weak points in the event of a roll over. They do this to avoid cutting into your dash, but it makes it less safe.

As far as LHD or RHD, from what I have seen, they look symmetric, so i don't see how they favor one side vs the other. Some of the other roll bars/cages out there do have a diagonal bar that is made to protect the drivers side.

Also, padding is primarily required for DD cars because you are not wearing a helmet.

And as long as you are not doing W2W racing, and are just doing HPDE and Time Attack, the AutoPower and Kirk racing are SCCA approved. So you dont necessarily need to be welded in to be SCCA/NASA approved.

 

real roll cage padding is almost as hard as the metal tubing. You will still get f'd up if you hit your head on on that.

Pipe insulation is not roll cage padding.

 

^Great summary haha, def made it a bit clearer for me.

 

Is that with a helmet?

 

Kirk and Autopower both offer bolt in 6 point bolt in bars that are W2W approved. No idea how they set up the door bars and i hate how both of them run the forward down bars. Way to close to the hands, basically next to the steering wheel , right next to the uncut door panel.

When it is all said and done, my car will have a bolt in 4 point that is welded in and a custom front section fabbed and welded in to make it a 6 point.

 

wait your going to weld in a bolt in? or are you just going to be welding in the floor plates?

 

All said and done, my bolt in will be fully welded in.

 

i think a better option would be for you to sell me your Kirk and get a fully welded in cage.

 

Might be an option, but not till next winter

 

I'm trying to decide whether or not to reuse the cage from the roadster and have the extra bracing added to make it work the new coupe - vs having a new one custom made. I'll be gutting the speaker & glovebox metal first. I really liked having everything behind the seats welded in, with welded plates in the front floorboards so I could bolt in/out the a pillar arms and halo. Not that it came back out very often, but it was nice to have the option. Mine was fully padded with high density padding and I always wore my 4 point harnesses when the front was in. Maybe I should go take some welding classes.

Shoot, that cage is the only reason that I'm still here, so I guess I really should put one in the new coupe ASAP.