Derek:
In answer to your comments:
> - the needs of racing and "street" rollbars are slightly different. With
a proper racing
> harness the driver is effectively immobile and can't even lower his
helmeted head to one side to
> avoid a broken neck or crushed vertebrae in a rollover. With a normal
street 3-point harness
> there is at least some freedom for the head to moved to one side in same
situation. Therefore an
> effective race rollbar needs to be 3-4" higher than an acceptable, "better
than nothing" street
> bar. Even your excellent rollbar, teched by SVRA etc or not, doesn't
really provide this
> protection.
Actually, the roll bar IS 3 - 4" over my head, 2" with helmet on. AND, I
use a 5-point harness on the street as well as on the track.
> - if you are so concerned about accident protection on the street - don't
drive any open car -
> or even any "old" car.
Concern need not mean paranoia. I drive my MGB about 8,000 miles a year
now. Used to be more. I practice defensive driving to the point of running
headlights ALL THE TIME (Highbeams in Westport, CT - the air-head,
soccer-mom, SUV capitol of the East.). AND, have you ever seen the results
of MGB crash tests? I have. They were impressive. Granted that age & rust
weaken the body structures. But, it is a realatively safe small car.
> - question - since you took such obvious pains to maximize the height of
your rollbar within
> the confines of the soft top why did you not curved the top bar to follow
the curvature of the
> soft top - thus gaining another inch or two in center height?
I was lucky enough to find someone who would deal with the SCCA specs AND my
need to use a top in building a roll bar. I wanted that. But, the extra
difficulty of what you suggest was beyond what the builder would do.
Norm Sippel
'66 MGB, et al
|