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Russ finished the roll bar yesterday afternoon, and it came out excellent. For any of you that are interested, I've posted a few pix below and a link to the rest on my Fotki account. I've got to get the car to my upholstery guy for finish work because I'm not going to use many of the factory panels. I wanted the car to be able to be returned to stock if anyone ever wanted to do that. Asside from the plates that are welded in, the bar could be cut out and all the factory parts could be re-installed. The pix below were taken during the construction, so it's not the "pretty" version yet. I'll get it painted this weekend and post some of the finished bar before interior work hides most of it.
The roll bar is tucked nicely under the factory soft top and also fits very well under a factory hardtop. Thanks for the test fit Alan!
Russ was able to keep ALL the storage bins, even the secret compartment. He ran the harness bar basically between the glovebox compartment and the deep storage bin in the "secret compartment". Plus, with Sparco seats installed, the harness bar should be at just about optimum height. Came out excellent!!!
He also relocated the factory seatbelt retractors so that the belts can be used instead of harnesses if wanted.
Huge thanks to Russ @ Racetech Fabrication for an awesome job. I'm VERY happy with the outcome. If anyone wants to talk to Russ you can catch him at (503)309-4220 or (503)254-6706 or On the web.
IMHO, this is absolutely the best of both worlds. Safety and retained function of the car as a driver. If this were going to be a full on "Trackho", Russ would have done a full cage. But I want to be able to use this car on the street as well.
That's kind of a loaded question, because the cage can be built about any way you want it. As mine sits, keeping the factory seatbelts, etc... about 1,500 bucks. This requires that you take care of trim work as well. So basically, you'd get the car back exactly as mine is in the pictures. I opted to do some custom interior work instead of trimming all my factory panels, so mine will be a little more involved. As track safety was my #1 concern, he ran the down bars (3rd and 4th point) as far back as possible to acheive more angle. This will require that I mount my spare either further back in the original orientation, or vertical in the bottom of the factory well. After I reassemble the car, we're going to put in a tab so I can mount it vertical in the trunk. But I want to keep it really clean, so I'll wait until all the interior is back in for perfect fitment. If you leave the spare in it's exact stock position, the down bars have to be very vertical. Russ wasn't real happy with that prospect, and I was willing to relocate it. The factory mounting will remain for later if the next owner wants to go back to stock. I'll shoot you a PM with my cell in case you have any questions.
Its almost exactly like mine, except I had them put in a cross bar and lost my secret compartment...
My harness bar is in the same location. Just sucks it cant be any higher (on both of ours)
I was scratching my head over the concept of ripping out the rag top last night when I saw that....
Yes, if I decide to make my car a dedicated track car it will almost certainly get a hardtop and the softtop mechanism will go bye-bye. I do like running with the top down, but the hard top is still removeable.
3312DC - Thanks. Yup, the bars are real similar. We considered a diagonal, and maybe even a removable "Petty bar" in case I wanted to run an SCCA event. But, decided against it. I've seen your car with the bar in it while lurking here, but never realized that your harness bar passed thru the same place. Question for ya... What seats did you use, and how did you mount? Were you able to get yourself lower in the car than you were in the stock seat? We guessed that the harness bar height would be just about right with a race seat in the car, and looking at your pix, I'd say it's just about perfect!
Jim, like Alan said there was a bit more room with the hardtop. You could probably get away with going another inch, maybe inch and a half with the hardtop. We left approx 5/8 to 3/4 inch under the support bar in the soft top to allow for padding. I think that since this car is going to be street driven too, I'm going to use the new FIA approved squared off padding. It's FUGLY, but very functional.
Mike, we haven't met but I've read about a thousand of your posts. Maybe we'll catch up at one of the local GTG's or track events. Anyway, I know where you're going with the hardtop only idea. If all the mechanism were gone, there definitely be more room for "bars" in general. You could go wider on the main hoop, and run some real nice 3rd/4th point bars back towards the trunk. Plus everywhere else. You'd be surprised just how much thinking had to go into the design to make everything functional. The movement of the soft top, as well as the landing of the glass window. It lands right between the down bars. But the best thing was having the harness bar pass right thru that itty bitty space between storage bins.
Very nice job. When I get my car to Washington I will be paying that shop a visit. I don't know much about NHRA rules, but will a setup like yours meet their requirements for the drag strip? Or do they require a full cage?
06-08-2006, 07:19 AM
If anyone wants to talk to Russ you can catch him at (503)309-4220 or (503)254-6706 or On the web.
