Rollbar for saftey at the track-- but what about the street?

[GN SBS]

I've been researching rollbars in recent weeks and have looked at a bunch of photos of various designs, particularly around swingout design.

My question: Will a rollbar improve or decrease safety in everyday street driving, where things like side collisions are possible? I'm wondering in particular about swing-outs folding in onto the driver and limbs hitting the tubing. Thoughts/opinions/experiences?

thanks!
Scott

 

[1320]

Think of it this way.....the bar increases strenght. It takes energy to bend/ breal that side bar....if it wasn t there that energy would be imparted on your body by what ever was doing the hitting. If you are injured by the side bar you would be more injured by the bumper if the side bar wasn t there at all...

I like cages / bars in everything now....really, since I had my daughter, I think about what if this happened or that...what if my wife was in a accident (even at the track) at 80 mph...thats plenty fast enough to get killed end up on the roof etc....big deal if the car runs 13's or 12's.....I d still want her to get out ok...

Street bars/ cages are different....swing outs, better /closer fits etc....they all need to be custom. No store bought will have the tight fit of a well done custom. Ofcourse a well done custom takes twice the time of a cage for a race car.

Alstons swing out are the nicest imo.

 

[Racer X]

I am not a big fan of roll bars/cages in street cars. If you must, I would pad the bar (alot) wherever your body could come in contact with it during an impact. Especially your head.

There is a good reason that car companies are putting softer airbags inside the passenger compartment rather than harder materials.

Just my $0.02 on the subject.

 

[GNSCOTT]

It is called "roll bar" for a reason. It is not meant to protect you in a side impact, but it will do that too. It is meant to keep the roof collapsing in a rollover. It also stiffens the car to give it better stability. Yes all points that your head can contact the bar are supposed to be padded anyways.

 

[denn454]

i've never had any experence with roll bars but i'd have to question them for street safty. the main thing i'm seeing is the fact that they don't make rigid cars anymore, they have found its safer to have a car that can bend in some places, crumple zones. they "soak up" a lot of the energy insted of letting you take all the energy. a roll bar will definatly protect you from someones bumper from coming in and hiting you, it would be great for that. the thing i'd be afraid of is it making the car to rigid, lets say someone rear ends you really fast. your trunk will take most of the impact. once it reaches the back seat the force would be taken by the roll bar thats not going to bend and will result in a shock that could really hurt. if there was no roll bar the back seat would take the force, and so on.

from a direct impact a roll bar is great, and if you have some head restraint and a good 5 point harness, you can't go wrong, but we don't have that for the street.

its really up to you, personally i wouldn't do it for a number of reasons, saftey not being one of them. its an extra 80 pounds, tough to get to the back seat, looks bad, cost a lot of money....

 

[zam70]

Originally posted by denn454
i've never had any experence with roll bars but i'd have to question them for street safty. the main thing i'm seeing is the fact that they don't make rigid cars anymore, they have found its safer to have a car that can bend in some places, crumple zones. they "soak up" a lot of the energy insted of letting you take all the energy. a roll bar will definatly protect you from someones bumper from coming in and hiting you, it would be great for that. the thing i'd be afraid of is it making the car to rigid, lets say someone rear ends you really fast. your trunk will take most of the impact. once it reaches the back seat the force would be taken by the roll bar thats not going to bend and will result in a shock that could really hurt. if there was no roll bar the back seat would take the force, and so on.

from a direct impact a roll bar is great, and if you have some head restraint and a good 5 point harness, you can't go wrong, but we don't have that for the street.

its really up to you, personally i wouldn't do it for a number of reasons, saftey not being one of them. its an extra 80 pounds, tough to get to the back seat, looks bad, cost a lot of money....

Actually, ALL of the "crumple zones" in cars are in front and behind the passenger compartment, the passenger compartment is very rigid...our cars don't even have "crumple zones". Side impact is deflected by rigid reinforcement bars (which our cars don't have either)...So either way, a properly installed roll bar will INCREASE the safety of your vehicle as well as reinforce the overall structure of the car (which ours are terrible...unibodies are stronger)
The major draw back to a bar is poor accessibility to the rear seat.
Appearance is subjective. Personally, I wouldn't sacrafice safety at the track for appearance on the street.
It's funny that people will spend alot of cash to make their car dangerous (FAST) but won't spend a 10th of that same money on safety for them selves...

 

[Racer X]

Here's another way to think of it. You get a solid steel box. Real strong. Then put some fine china in there and tie them down. Then drop it from a height of ten feet or so. The box will remain relatively intact, meanwhile all the dishes inside the box are shattered.

Now take that same box and pack it with foam rubber between the box and each dish, but leave the dishes loose. Then drop it again. The difference now would be that the dishes would either not be broken or at least not nearly as bad. The foam rubber acts as the crumple zones that we have in our street cars. It helps absorb the energy.

I know this is not all that practical for most folks, but it is for these safety reasons that I have stopped racing my street cars and now have a single purpose race car.



Be safe out there