For race or serious track duty, a roll bar is too short if your head
extends above it. However, on the track, the driver is firmly belted into
the car with a racing harness. If the car rolls over and you are in a 5
point harness, your head sticking out above the roll bar becomes the top of
the roll bar because you can not slide to the side like a "street" 3 point
belt system. This, incidentally, is why you should never use racing
harnesses without a roll bar, in open-top or hardtop cars. In addition,
racers with open-top cars use arm restraints so, as the car is rolling,
their arms do not get trapped between the top of the roll bar and the
ground (which, as you can imagine, tends to cut off the arm.)
For the street, the roll bar serves more of decorative function, so I
wouldn't worry too much about height. If you do roll the car, you will be
"loose" in the cockpit with standard seat belts and will have greater
things to worry about than the height of the roll bar.
I would suggest that, if you haven't done so, you might consider padding
the roll bar if your head could hit it if you had a minor accident. If you
get hit from behind, as an example, and you hit the back of your head on
unpadded metal roll bar, the damage will be much more severe than without
the roll bar in place. And, getting hit by another car has a much higher
probability of occurring than rolling your car.
Date: Wed, 31 Oct 2001 11:42:24 -0800
From: "Alan Lindner" <A.Lindner@STRATEDGE.COM>
Subject: Rollbars
I received a rollbar for my TR6 from a club member. Finally got it
primered, painted, and installed (lift the car on jacks and remove
both wheels). I guy at work looked at it and said it is too short.
After I sat in the car, he said that my head is about 3 inches above
the top of the rollbar.
Question for the group.
What should the height of the rollbar be above the back deck?
Is it roughly the height of the windshield?
Thanks
Alan
William Whitmoyer
69 TR6
90 BMW iX
91 CRX Si
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