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Hi All Meal booked as requested Mini Bus Collection arranged for 7-30pm on Friday to allow for any late comers (David Birch) Mini Bus Collection arranged for 7-00pm on Sat as we will all be there and two runs will be required. I trust all is in order! Best regards Glutey aka Graham

Massive fan of the Mars Rovers and what they have achieved but the latest selfie has to be the best ever: http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/images/?ImageID=7438 Can't help but be in awe at what NASA have achieved, well past its mission parameters and just keeps on going ... the reliability is probably down to no one tinkering with it

I would be very surprised if that cage was unacceptable to the chief scrutineer at one of our rounds of the Speed Series. If it was unacceptable then most of us are "in trouble!".

It's down to money as always. This was always going to happen sometime, it was just a question of when. Maybe this is something the club could look into funding for the benefit of its members on a non profit basis. Seeking the approvals could be done if someone is prepared to take the necessary steps by submitting a design and finding a manufacturer: http://www.horiba-mira.com/our-services/motorsport/roll-cage-design

If caged it should have a silver Homologation sticker so OK under the text below The purpose of the National ROPS homologation is to allow alternative designs that do not meet MSA requirements, but can be demonstrated through calculation to be of a sufficient strength. Such ROPS must follow the basic principles of MSA regulations – such as shape of main hoop, diagonals etc. – but there is then freedom in tube dimensions, and in this case the rose joints could be considered if they are accounted for in the stress calculation. If the design is homologated, then this would mean existing ROPS to that design can be acceptable without modification

Thanks it was the mounting at the bottom of the main hoop I was after a look at under the aluminium cover. I have got to say with a cage like that I really would have a word with the chief scrutineer at your next event.

It's only the Scutineers who can advise. Marshall's do not have any responsibility for car suitabilty, they just sort out out if you crash it Do you have a picture of the base of your Roll Bar, just to confirm which design you have.

Great idea Nick, I'll ask the scrutineers at my next 6 events if my cage ( which is the same as Barny's welded in roll bar and bolt on front cage ) will meet next years regs and report back on the response I get

I'd just like to make a point about all of this before we go to much further. As has been highlighted above where this comment was made "Surely the factory must have had some form of approval for a race series cage, as I don't think the rules have changed that much over the years." This is the main part of the problem, for over 10 years now WSCC has been telling the factory that their "RAC" bar does not comply with MSA Roll Bar specifications, yet it has taken then until a year or so ago to do something about it and bring out their "MSA" bar, although to be honest I have not checked if that is MSA Complient. So I hope you get the drift of where I lay a lot of the blame. Now on to the serious stuff, anyone wanting to compete in a Westifeld in MSA approved Sprint or Hillclimb will need to have a Roll over bar that complies with MSA regulations. These have been quoted earlier on. Now I understand that no-one wants to spend money needlessly however I would point out that there have been occasions when Westfield's roll over so you can;t say it doesn't happen. The last that I am aware of was John Roberts Electric Westfield which was particularly nasty, the car was a very heavy car over 700kg. In this crash it significantly bent a Roll Over bar made to MSA specifications. So in my personal opinion I would be very concerned to compete in a car which doesn't have the right spec bar. Even more so when you consider that a lot of our competitors are as quick as many of the single seater race cars. You do not have to fit a cage for any of our classes including Mod Prod, just an MSA complient bar, which are available from £ 260 upwards from a variety of suppliers, assuming you need to buy one. There is no getting around it or any other fiddle. If you are not sure if your bar or cage is to the right standard then one way of checking is to get your local scrutineer to have a look for you, or ask at an event you go to this year.

Im confirmed Cheers Craig

I am home for one full day every two weeks. My mileage limit was 7000 miles last year and I had to extend that. On track to do the same again this year.

I'd be worried about interfering with the crossflow self replenishing chassis anticorrosion system. Jen