Roll Bar Comments

[DanElam]

Gus-

A couple of things. First, the seat is what protects you from whiplash. All the race seats are required to have metal or carbon fiber (no fiberglass allowed) that comes up behind the seat. The roll-bar won't do anything to help with that.

The roll-bar, however, will protect you from whacking your head if it is tall enough. Most of the roll-bars that you see on the Cobras offer a false sense of security - they might protect you, but most aren't tall enough to protect your head from getting squished. Draw a line from the front of the car to the top of the roll-bar. If your head crosses that plane, your head gets squished in a roll-over.

Cages do a good job of protecting against side impact. NASA, NASCAR, and others insist on solid plates to protect against intrusion, but most of the safety comes from the cage not crumpling in a side impact. FFR's spec racer frame is designed for that, but the real danger is from the crush, not the protusion.

The hoop roll-bars don't provide any protection from the side impact, but the tube-frame cars still provide better than average survivability.

Most of the single hoop roll-bars offer misleading protection: most I have seen don't actually provide any real safety advantages. Does this make the cars unsafe? No. They are still safer than an MGB or older Truimph.

If you want real safety, put in a full cage. If you want more safety, put in a rollbar tall enough to protect your head. If you just want it to look good, put in whatever you like. Thank goodness we are still permitted to choose!