Roll Bar, Anyone?

[shotgunslade]

Has anyone installed a roll bar and harness bar in their SVX? How did it fit? How much did it mess up the interior, if you kept the interior? How much did it cost? I think I need 5-point harness and some decent seats to make my car the great track car it should be.

[Hocrest]

Me and Ben got the cage for the Racer from a shop just off Rte 80 near Danville PA.
http://www.autoweldchassis.com/
Their website was outdated 5 years ago and it hasn't changed since...

I know he was going to keep the pattern and the measurements from ours, so he should be able to build another.

We had no interior in the racer other than the dash, but he took the measurements from my stock 92.

I think the cost of all the steel (1.75" x .125" DOM) was $400?? Ben may remember the price better? That was for a full cage with harness bar, rear crossed support, side bars, halo and front supports. We did the final cuts notching and welding on our own.

[benebob]

Yeah, what Dave said. welding with an interior would be quite a paint though.

[shotgunslade]

I'm thinking that the interior in the back will be removed, and the welding for the attachments will happen. The roll bar itself will have to be measured and laid out and welded outside the car. I know that at least the harness bar and the diagonal, if there i one, will have to be bolt-in because I don't want to lose the rear seat forever. Maybe the entire roll bar is bolt in.

This car won't ever be a wheel to wheel race car. With the mods that are in it, it would be competing against machines that are way out of its league. It is a track day, DE car, and a great one. Ready to play footsies with 964 Porsches, E36 and maybe E46 M3's, WRX's (not STI's), tarted-up Cobalts, maybe even an R32, or a stock RX-8. And in the rain, it passes Corvettes. So, I don't need the SCCA compliant side-bar, or a full roll cage. What I really need is a seat that keeps you in place and a 5-point belt and roll-bar that will keep you in place, and will protect your head (as you are kept in place) in case the shiney side goes down.



Looking at these seats. Procar Rave Series 1600. Anbody know anything about them?

[SVXRide]

Dan,

You might want to check on the safety aspects (read - racing certification) of any seat that has an adjustable back.

Bill

[smc]

Avoid procar like the plague in any performance aspect. They are absolute crud. Fine for daily driving.. or rice.. But will not fair well in a race application. If you have a roll bar in a car like the svx, ( ie a car with NO headroom ) then you need a good fixed back seat. Not even necessarily an FIA approved seat. However it has to be a fixed back seat. The reason is, you need to completely restrict movement of your torso when your properly secured in. Otherwise, that roll bar becomes something like a baseball bat if you roll, crash or have any high-g maneuvers. Imagine rolling and the seat back bends or breaks. You will be seriously injured. Period. Your Best bet is to look on sites like Dirty Impreza, nasioc, special stage and the like for Used race seats with expired tags. They will be fine for autocross and rally cross, open track events etc. And are still good seats. You just cant use them in sanctioned events like Rally America.
I used Momo Corse seats in my rally car. Cost efficient and damn comfortable.

[smc]

Proper way to mount your harness. If the straps are secured too far back, then it allows the belt to stretch and get looser, thus negating the point of a harness all together. Avoid shoulder belt lengths more than 6" from the back of the seat.

[shotgunslade]

I'm thinking for a track day car, maybe the best idea would be to get a really supportive seat, such as the used JDM Acura Type R Recaro's you can get on eBay, and then use a CG lock or other locking device with the 3-point belts. That would keep the utility of the back-seat, provide better lateral location while avoiding some of the issues of the roll bar and harness.

Another option might be the Corbeau A4, which you can get with a slot for the 5-point belt. The roll-bar on the SVX is going to have to be well back of the front seat back for me. Being very tall, I have to recline the stock seat quite a bit to drive with a helmet. The roll bar would definitely be well behind the B pillar, so I don't know that the head crunching issue is a big deal with the roll bar that far back. As I said, I would want either the entire roll bar or the harness bar and cross brace to be bolt-in and removable, so the rear seat can be accessible.

I guess the main issue is to provide a more stable driving platfrom for DE days and the occasional autocross. You move around too much with the stock seats even with the 3-point belt snugged to the point of impeding breathing.