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It's getting there, for all the work that he's doing I think I'm still another 2 weeks out. Here are some pics I snapped today
Gutted! The front bumper beam has been removed and will be replaced with a full width steel tube bumper conforming to the shape of the cover for when I want to offer a little extra encouragement
The rear beam structure is removed and will remain that way for those times when others feel like offering encouragement to me
The tube running behind the dash has been removed. It will be replaced by the tube from the cage.
The cage will be 12 point. Here you can see 8 of those 12 points. The 4 raised posts receive the diagonals coming down from the main hoop. The risers extend all the way down to surround the bolts holding the rear subframe on, about 8 inches. The pads in front of the shock tower will connect to the top of the door X.
The main hoop welds to the pads here.
Another pad making it 10 point.
Pads on the front shock towers complete the cage mounting points.
Some fancy sheet metal work on the top of the transmission tunnel will offer more width for my giant seat. It's a bit too complicated to talk about, I'll have more pics which will show what's going on there when it's complete.
That's it for now. I'll have more pics next week I hope.
now I understand the rear mounts more those are pretty cool, but I still think its a little bit overkill since your minimum weight in your class is 2200lbs IIRC? I would have opted for the least amount of cage to be safe/legal. The extra points are nice, but in a car as stiff as ours, I'm not sure they make a big diff.
Also I think the main hoop should be mounted to the ledge behind the seat, not to the floor or half way up in your case. Requires less tubing and gives you more seat clearance.
The rear mounts aren't obvious but they are pretty cool. If you look down those 4 stacks you will be looking at the 4 bolts which hold the rear subframe to the frame. Those tubes extend all the way down through the frame rail and rest on the bottom of the inside of the frame rail. They are mig welded (not done yet) to the base plate.
The 4 diagonals, 2 straight and 2 criss-cross, are welded to the side of those riser stacks. In essence the cage is built into the frame rather than being welded to it. Is it overkill? Probably but it's built to survive Mosport which is mainly run in 4th and 5th gears. If the grass on the runoff is wet you can go sailing off into the tire barriers at 80-90 MPH easy; there are few small offs. Most of the corners are comparable to Sears turn 10 but with more grass run off. 8 of my 10 races this season will be at Mosport so the cage is built to withstand the worst it has to offer and still allow me to walk away from a smoking hulk.
Minimum weight in class in 2440 lbs including driver + up to 100 lbs of rewards weight. I'm hoping the car without driver weighs in at around 2300 lbs.
The main hoop needs to go down to the bottom of the doors for the X bracing and the anti-intrution tubes which need to be welded to it. Running them down to the ledge isn't an option.
The doors weight 44 lbs not including the glass. Cutting them out, removing the motors and tracks and removing the side-impact beams reduces them to 20 lbs each. A composite skin, FRP or CF, would lower that by half but I'll leave that for another season.
Car prep progresses...slowly
