What Roll Over Bar Have you got

[Mark Purves]

Not much of a RANT Silly but we all know in our hearts that everyone should fit something other than and Standard Westfield item.

     

[JasonR]

A RAC roll bar was the first upgrade on my car.  I used to have the very old style with the seat belt mounts built into the bar.  When removed the original bar was incredibly light - I don't think it would take much load to deform the bar.  

On a related note if you fit a cross braced roll bar you do need either high back seats or padding on the cross brace - this is especially true on the passenger side.  Otherwise the potential head injuries from a even a minor shunt could be very serious.  High back seats were the 2nd upgrade on my car

[neilwillis]

I think Cat Motorsport still market one, though how much theirs costs I don't know.   I got my original RAC bar from a local contact, and then the taller one was a straight swap for that one.   There are a number of people swapping roll bars for cages, so you may be lucky enough to find one for sale here too.

[adhawkins]

I think Cat Motorsport still market one

I asked them when I was looking for mine, they don't do them any more.

Andy

[neilwillis]

That's a pity, they looked good bars.

[Rob Navin]

Who can I go to to buy and (get fitted) a chromed RAC bar (if available)?

P.S. I'm in North Yorks so somewhere local would be handy !!

Paul at playscool would be able to fit it you and could probaly arrange to get one for you if your not happy doing the work yourself.

Paul can now also suppluy boot boxes with flat tops where the rear supports go in and a boot between the two bars.  This means you have the saftey and some storeage which does not look like it has been attacked with a angle grinder.  

Best of both worlds anyone  

FOr me I have an extra tall welded RAC bar bespoke made by the factory which I have since added a petty bar to.  There are things that you bolt on a car that should be heavy and have no compromises.  The roll bar is one of these items.

[adhawkins]

Paul can now also suppluy boot boxes with flat tops where the rear supports go in and a boot between the two bars.

And TimD is in the process of making something similar that will suit a Westfield with the long range fuel tank.

Andy

[neilb]

I have a CAT RAC roll bar it's taller than the Westfield, it's 50mm not the 38mm tube, corners not bent as tight and angled slightly.

Don't think that that do them any more which is a shame.

Why Can't Westfield make a hood that fits over the RAC bar?  Not that it bothers me - don't have a screen but it does seem a bit pointless to be wet and safe or dry and headless    

[Martin Keene]

Just fitted an RAC to mine.

For anybody who is thinking about it, a powder coated RAC bar for a narrow body is £230.99 inc vat.

Might be interesting to see how much load the std bar would take before deforming. I might be willing to subject my to the test... nobody is likely to buy a 2nd hand standard narrow body roll bar now the factory don't make the narrow body anymore.

[Mark B]

That's a shame cat don't do them anymore, right who's upgrading from an rac to full cage...................

[Blatman]

Both my cars have RAC bars. Well the green one has an RAC style bar, and knowing the builder as I do, it'll be fine if I should roll it...

[Liam]

[Fish needs a woman like a]

.....fly in the spanner......................everyone knows that but it's no cheese off my back if they don't

[Nick M]

Having read through both threads, I have to say I was concerned to see people seemingly arguing in *favour* of the standard bar because there was little or no evidence to suggest it really would fail when put to the ultimate test.  In effect arguing that no evidence of failure is proof of it's strength rather than actually having some positive evidence to support it's effectiveness.

Apart from those pictures of Gordon's car....

I believe that car was actually an SEiW (looking at the other pictures on the se7ens FTP site)

And if you look at the other couple of pictures on th site you can see it was the tube which failed, not the mounting to the chassis.

Now, what a lot of people probably don't remember is the correspondence on the se7ens list about Gordon's injuries and his subsequent recovery.  He had head injuries (fortunately not too serious) and ended up with limited use of one of his arms even after months of physio therapy.  He did not walk away unscathed by any stretch of the imagination and spent several weeks in hospital.

I went out and bought an RAC bar as a direct result of his accident and having seen the pictures of the standard roll bar.  And for a while I thought it offered me reasonable protection.  

Actually in fairness I still do, but I was lucky to be in a position where I could afford the expense of a full cage for my car because, particularly with an aeroscreen, I personally no longer felt adequately protected by the RAC bar.

Having now fitted a cage then, like Ed, there's no way I'd ever have a se7en type car without one.  While some of that is down to where and how I use the car, i.e. for trackdays, it does offer an increased "comfort factor" on the road and while it's probably over-kill for a lot of people I can now honestly say I feel happier driving the car with a cage.  It doesn't encourage me to push my luck, just offers additional protection and peace of mind.

A standard bar is, IMNSHO, a joke.  Handy for pushing the car when it runs out of petrol, but hardly a safety item.

The RAC bar is a definite improvement and offers not just a height advantage but also additional rear protection / bracing in the event of a rear impact.  They're even better with a Petty Strut.  Incidentally, the Caterham FIA bar doesn't actually have FIA approval *withouth* the Petty Strut according to a recent(ish) thread on Blatchat.

But if you can justify the expense and, admittedly, inconvenience of a cage then I cannot recommend them highly enough.

I hope I never have cause to use any form of roll over protection because like insurance or a decent crash helmet you hope you never have cause to use them.  But if I ever do, then I'm happy with the choices I've made.

[Blatman]

Several good points, all well made, and nicely presented

You back Stateside?

[Al Yupright]

Plus in the mean-time, whilst not "using" the cage, it makes the car handle noticeably better.

Arguably a FIA bar/petty strut would do this too, but nothing like as much.