Safe cage cheap?

#1

Okay I am hoping for comp school at CMP in Feb. I have had doubts about my cage since I picked the car up!! and well I had Pete Urbanski(sp?)check my cage out at RA this past weekend, and I would have to redo all the welds, add bars, cut stuff out, redo bars, then it might pass. I felt he just didn’t want to tell me to start over.

This came as no surprise as I have read the rules, and have picked my cage apart.

My? I want to have a safe cage, but doing it a second time (doh!!) I want to do this smart, and without using all my finish the car $! I have researched the evil genius racing stuff, and the Kirk weld in kits, but have never seen one in person, or talked to anyone with one installed. Anybody out there have one of these cages in their car? If I go with pre-fab I found a new guy, and I am looking to just get the main hoop, the forward bars, and the dash bar, and have the rest of it done custom do you think this is a good idea?

When pete looked over my car he had very bad things to say about having the foot protection any insights on this. I was under the impression it would keep the wheel from pushing back into the footwell. Also 1.5 or 1.75 tubing?

Or should I man up and have a custom cage built which would hurt bigtime!!

TIA

Greg

#2

I have a Kirk weld-in cage that was purchased as a kit and welded in at home, well actually a a friend’s shop. I had Mark make me up the same cage that he built for the GRM car as I liked the way it looked. I’m completely satisfied with the results and it is a legal cage.

Installing one of these isn’t a trivial task. Kirk furnishes the pieces slightly over sized so that they can be fitted to the car using maximum dimensions. That means that the tubes have to be trimmed to length and notched as a part of the assembly. And you need to know what order to do things to get good welds so that you have access all around each joint. But it isn’t a terrible job and a good fabricator would not have any problems,

#3

jlevie wrote:

[quote]I have a Kirk weld-in cage that was purchased as a kit and welded in at home, well actually a a friend’s shop. I had Mark make me up the same cage that he built for the GRM car as I liked the way it looked. I’m completely satisfied with the results and it is a legal cage.

Installing one of these isn’t a trivial task. Kirk furnishes the pieces slightly over sized so that they can be fitted to the car using maximum dimensions. That means that the tubes have to be trimmed to length and notched as a part of the assembly. And you need to know what order to do things to get good welds so that you have access all around each joint. But it isn’t a terrible job and a good fabricator would not have any problems,[/quote]

so what options did you get? Should I just call and order the Grassroots cage, how mucy did it run you?

#4

Greg, if you can’t get this unscrewed by comp school, give me a call in late Jan about borrowing my car. That will get you thru Comp School gate and allow you more time to prepare your car to pass it’s Annual.

That’s the least I can do for all of the entertainment you are providing for me over at BF.c.

#5

Ranger wrote:

[quote]Greg, if you can’t get this unscrewed by comp school, give me a call in late Jan about borrowing my car. That will get you thru Comp School gate and allow you more time to prepare your car to pass it’s Annual.

That’s the least I can do for all of the entertainment you are providing for me over at BF.c. [/quote]

I appreciate the offer, but I have a very talented fabricator/welder now, with funds in place as I had a feeling I would be doing this again. I just need a couple ideas on how do go about it without going full custom. In this economy I can promise he will be able to fit me in, or beg me for my business.

I am glad the clutch in while braking thread is giving you a laugh:unsure:

#6

If you tell Mark that you want the same cage as he built for the GRM car, the only options are whether you want a dash bar and what type of door bars. The choice in door bars is determined by whether you’ll remove the windows and regulators, allowing “Nascar type” bars.

As I recall the cage kit ran $1200 and Mark will install it for about $600 more. That was over a year ago, so pricing may have changed.

#7

Okay I called Kirk today, and Called John at Evil Genius Racing. After bouncing some questions off them I decided to go with the Evil Genius Racing cage. John was very knowledgeable, and helpful, and can have my cage shipped by Monday.

This is the cage I ordered. I will post more pics once it is installed.

#8

looking at the pictures of the Spec E30 car on their site, make sure they make all the required bars end on plates. It doesn’t really look like that for the rear down tubes.
bruce

#9

leggwork wrote:

[quote]looking at the pictures of the Spec E30 car on their site, make sure they make all the required bars end on plates. It doesn’t really look like that for the rear down tubes.
bruce[/quote]

It is the exact cage pictured above, and every bars looks to end on a plate to me.

#10

it just appears to me that the rear down tube ends on the short diagonal, not on the plate itself.
thanks,
bruce

#11

leggwork wrote:

[quote]it appears to me that the rear down tube ends on the short diagonal, not on the plate itself.
thanks,
bruce
[/quote]

John has changed the design for the rear since that pic. where 3 bars end on that one plate in the pic now only two bars go to the back, and the rear plate design has been modified, I will post pics when I get it installed. I think John told me 13 out of 14 cars in the norcal region have one of his cages!!

If not that is something I will have to keep a close eye on during install thanks for the heads up!

The pics of the cage on the site are of Scott Neville’s car. The original thread about his cage can be found here. http://spece30.com/component/option,com_kunena/Itemid,86/func,view/id,15240/catid,3/
doesn’t tell you what the official ruling was, but I think that car has been raced for quite some time.

#12

My E30 was one of the early cages that John put in back in 2007. Mine is an '87 model and I knew it would be hard to make weight so I asked John to add some extra downtubes from the main hoop to the rear floor and this is the design he came up with. Mine is the only one with this configuration. John has since improved and standardized his cage and the drawings that are shown are correct.

John issued the logbook for my car and maintains it is a legal design…I raced it for the full 2008 season. I admit it is different…no one has protested it.

Here are photos of his standardized design. BTW this car was used to make the exploded figure of the cage:

#13

Scott, thanks for that post. After talking with John I hate to say I was a little worried. But I think he even has a new design for the rear bars.

Can’t wait to cut my old cage out of my car and get this installed.

I would hope I would be 10 sec. ahead of my competition, and every other part of my car had already been protested before someone protested the cage.

#14

Glad you feel better. John’s final design is an excellant one as you can tell from the photos. John’s website is going to get updated soon and get the outdated material purged (like the photos of my one-of-a-kind cage).

Best of luck with the build!:cheer:

#15

sneville44 wrote:

[quote]Glad you feel better. John’s final design is an excellant one as you can tell from the photos. John’s website is going to get updated soon and get the outdated material purged (like the photos of my one-of-a-kind cage).

Best of luck with the build!:cheer:[/quote]

Again thanks. I now feel like I did something right for once!! Even if it was the second time.

#16

Here’s why we all need a good cage design…in-car from this last weekend’s 25-hour at Thunderhill. The car is a pumped-up Scion and it’s Thursday practice I believe. The car gets loose in Turn 8 (~100mph) and goes off in the dirt and barrel rolls. Notice the dirt shooting into the visor of the driver…a good reason to keep our visors down or wear safety glasses. The car owners got this car fixed and it ran in the race…ran 390 laps and finished 42 out of 68 cars.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3H48cXV35gw&feature=related

#17

sneville44 wrote:

[quote]Here’s why we all need a good cage design…in-car from this last weekend’s 25-hour at Thunderhill. The car is a pumped-up Scion and it’s Thursday practice I believe. The car gets loose in Turn 8 (~100mph) and goes off in the dirt and barrel rolls. Notice the dirt shooting into the visor of the driver…a good reason to keep our visors down or wear safety glasses. The car owners got this car fixed and it ran in the race…ran 390 laps and finished 42 out of 68 cars.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3H48cXV35gw&feature=related[/quote]

I just watched that 6 or 7 times. Even though it looks like the driver was late to correct the slide that cage did it’s job. Edit looks like by turn in he was already a passenger. Keep your eye on the passenger A pillar, it barely bends out during the rollover.

#18

sneville44 wrote:

[quote]Here’s why we all need a good cage design…in-car from this last weekend’s 25-hour at Thunderhill. The car is a pumped-up Scion and it’s Thursday practice I believe. The car gets loose in Turn 8 (~100mph) and goes off in the dirt and barrel rolls. Notice the dirt shooting into the visor of the driver…a good reason to keep our visors down or wear safety glasses. The car owners got this car fixed and it ran in the race…ran 390 laps and finished 42 out of 68 cars.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3H48cXV35gw&feature=related[/quote]
That’s a cage by TC Design. Soon to be a collector’s item :wink:

#19

Operation cage removal complete. Next mission if you choose to accept it pick up and install new cage. This message will self destruct in 10 seconds.

#20

Used roll cage for sale:side:

Picked up the Evil Genius cage goes in next week:cheer: