Kirk Racing Cages

#1

I’m in the middle of a build. I currently race a 98 mustang in AI and did the cage work ( all of it including bending and welding) myself. It took way too much time fitting and bending every tube just right. I had at least 400 hrs into it. For the e30, I was looking at a Kirk kit. They’ll make any door bar configurstion that I wish and the fitment that I’ve seen is very good. Has anyone used their cage? If anyone has good pics of a Kirk cage in a car I’d appreciate seeing them.

I’m looking to have an x door bar on both sides that protrude into the door itself. The middle of the x will have a vertical bar that will attach to the rocker for added support.

There will also be a dash bar that will be high and tucked behind the dash. I may even fab a bracket to attach the steering column if I want a different steering angle/height. I did that in my mustang and it worked well.

The down bars will most likely be attached just above the spring perch. The plate that the down bar attaches to will surround and be welded to or as close to the shock towers as possible.

A few people in these forums are talking about 1-3/4 tubing. I’m leaning towards 1-1/2. I have to check the rules for wall thickness, but believe it’s got to be .120 for 1-1/2 dia tubing.

Any thoughts? Im really interested in feed back regarding Kirk cages

Ray
Raypratojr@gmail.com

#2

Excellent cage builder. I built my own first time, and now I just take the car to Mark and tell him what I want…easy button!!!

#3

I used Kirk for my SpecE30 build this past June. Very easy to work with, and I was extremely happy with the result.

The only half-decent photos I have of the cage are in my (unfinished) blog, at http://sonof401.blogspot.com/

#4

I have used Kirk Racing for 5 cages to date. Some were pre-bent by Mark and welded by us, and some were completed entirely by Mark. We have “tested” all of the cages and have been extremely happy.

#5

I took my car to Kirk Racing to get my cage built like Jim Levie’s. The center net is attached to the dash bar. Ignore my crappy painting on the cage:

#6

I don’t understand why the door bars are bent the way they are. Been doing cages for 20 years and I have never seen why the door bars are bent with negative bends in the front and rear. There is plenty of room to do a normal NASCAR-ish door bars. Guess I need to reevaluate load paths and impacts.

#7

I agree that the door bars have too many bends. That’s why I asked them to make the X bars that protrude into the door.

Ray

#8

Ive got a quote for the cage from Kirk Racing. I specified X door bars that are bent and protrude into the door. He mentioned in the email that the tube will be 1.5" with a .095 wall. I was expecting .120 wall. Are these cars under 2500 lbs? I assumed an E30 with cage and safety equipment would be +2500 lbs and require a .120 wall tubing.

Ray

#9

I don’t know a helova lot about cages but I looked up the regs and I see your point. Kirk has a good rep. Ask them about the apparent discrepancy.

#10

never mind, im an idiot. He said the tubes were 1.75 dia with a .095 wall which is good to 3000 lbs

Ray

#11

I was going to say, all the cages I have seen from Kirk are 1.75" dia like mine.

#12

I picked up the cage kit. A couple of years ago I read the entire cage thread on corner-carvers.com and bent and welded the cage in my mustang. I feel that im very picky about how bars are bent,and their placement. With that said, I think I’m going to ditch the windshield bar and dash bar and replace both of them with straight bars. A straight bar is not only stronger, but also lighter than a bent bar. The door bars have too many bends, so I’ll be anchoring the bottom of them to the rocker to prevent them from collapsing into the car on a hard side impact. Other than that it looks good. I justwish they didn’t install the harness bar in the main hoop. That harness bar may have to be raised or lowered depending on where the shoulder belt holes in the seat end up.

Ray