I did my own "testing" of the high speed rollover protection of the S with the top down. I am 5'8 and my passenger, er co-tester, was 6'2. The factory roll hoops and the whole car for that matter performed flawlessly. The car flipped once and rolled twice. Aside from me being knocked out for a minute and some minor abbrasions we both walked away unscathed. The A pillar did collapse on the driver's side pinning me in the vehicle but I am not exactly sure at what point or what caused its collapse.

Personally I would invest in the Elda rollbar before I got the hardtop. It's SCCA approved and it looks really good. I agree that the hardtop has pretty much insignificant safety value, but it does look good.

 

HT=Coupe. If that's what you want, you may want another car. I prefer the ability to lower the top.

 

If you roll over on top of a 5 foot tree stump just right it'll make you about 1 foot tall. Nothing will help. A high well constucted rool bar should keep all but the tallest people alive if you were to roll over on the pavement which is what a roll bar on a car is supposed to do. It's not designed to protect you from being impailed.

 

hard top

 

I've never seen so much dangerous advice doled out by so many people in one thread...


To echo the comments of the few sensible people above, a hardtop is NOT going to offer you any additional structural rollover protection! The aluminum S2000 hardtop is NOT designed to support the weight of the car in a rollover like a properly designed rollbar will be!

Andrew

 

So in all honesty...if your taking about a street driven car, then the HT will result in a marginal net gain in safety. Only gain I could see is in keeping limbs inside the cabin during a rollover.

The rollbar, on the other hand, can result in a net DECREASE in safety for a street driven car. Why? It's all about proximity of your head to the metal rollbar. The most common type of accident today is a rear-end collision. In a rear end collision, your head can come into contact with the rollbar causing sub-dermal bleeding. This can easily kill you.

A rollbar is a great safety item in a track/autocross car when you're wearing a helmet, but can be a really dangerous addition to a street driven car. In all honesty the S2K stock roll protection is one of the best on the market and you don't need to add anything to increase it's safety. Just look at the number of rollover accidents the S2K has been involved in and how often the drive has come out with merely minor cuts and bruises.

 

I don't know about you, but if I get rear-ended my head is going to hit the back of the seat. I'm 5'10". Roll bar or not, my head shouldn't be anywhere near it, even in a strong rear impact. Or am I missing something?

 

I dislike the fact that the S2000 is a convertible. Don't get me wrong, I seldom drive it with the top up, but if I had a choice, I would've picked a coupe version of the S2000 over a convertible.

With that said, the fact that it was a convertible was not enough to make me think that another car fit my needs better. I wanted agility, balance, quality, decent power, rear wheel drive, and a nice manual transmission. The convertible top was just a compromise that I didn't mind dealing with, since there were no other cars that fit my requirements better.

 

Depends upon head position at time of impact....part of the issue is that rollbar is higher than the stock roll hoops. When you get rearended, the car is going to be pushed forward. You as the driver will be traveling back and up, due to seat position, potentially causing your head to impact the rollbar. Padding will help, but it's not clear how much risk is reduced. Even a relatively low speed impact can be dangerous.

The big question is, is it worth the risk of potential head injury in a common case accident to make an uncommon accident safer.