I spoke for 15 or 20 minutes last Friday with Wael at Elda Engineering about the Version II roll bar.
The answer to the "why not round tubing for the harness bar" question is aesthetics; one of their key design criteria was to minimize the need to cut up or remove interior bits. Because the fit is so close, using round tubing would have required cutting into the panels beneath the stock roll hoops, according to Wael. He also quoted load testing numbers on the square harness bar as well as the connection tabs and bolts (I didn't write down the figures) that satisfy me that the design is functional and safe.

Wael said he has recently decided to channel all bar sales through the GoFast lab guys rather than sell directly to customers out of his shop. I emailed JP at GoFast to determine what the shipping costs would be to Calgary...UPS will ship the bar here for $215 US, which is the same price as shipping to a US residential address (cost to ship to a US commercial address is $125).

So I ordered the bar yesterday...should be here in 3 to 4 weeks.

 

Very nice George, can't wait to see it!

Was it $215 US to ship to a business address in Canada? Or residential?

 

According to JP at GoFast, the $215 is to a commercial or residential address...for whatever reason, UPS doesn't make a distinction when shipping oversize packages to Canada.

 

Hmm, odd. Either way $215 seems like quite a bit. When I order Wesley Allen iron bed frames from Los Angeles, the freight is quite a bit less ($100 US~)... and a king bed frame can come in a box that's 8 feet by 5 feet, quite commonly.

GoFast isn't interested in trying to find a traditional truck-freight shipper are they? Not sure if it's worth the hassle

 

I think GoFast is probably passing on the cost of getting the bars bulk shipped shipped from Elda on the East Coast to wherever they are in California. So it may not be that UPS is charging $215...it's GoFast's shipping charge that takes in all their costs and (if they're smart) builds in X margin...

I bought a 4-point bar in 2001 for another car from a supplier in Louisiana, and it cost me $150 US to get it here...I was prepared to pay up to $250 US to GoFast this time around, and they came in under my no-go number.

 

Fair enough. Gofast should be drop shipping from Elda in new england though, makes more sense than shipping it all the way to the west coast and then up here.

Either way, can't wait to see it!

 

George... did you get an email about the roll bar not even being produced?

Apparently GoFastLabs are going to built it themselves...

 

Yes...I got the email from GoFast.
A little disappointing after waiting since early March. Despite GoFast's good intentions, I'm not holding my breath that the bar will actually be produced anytime soon.