Bends in door bars for roll bar/cage?...

[cjshaker]

I'm looking at door bars and trying to figure out what's legal and what isn't. There's nothing in the rules that say the door bar must be straight, so can they come across the required area between the shoulders and elbows, then bend down nearer the top of the seat and be nearly horizontal till they bend back down to the front of the down bars, or to the floor in a 5/6 point? This would allow them to be welded and still maintain easy entrance, rather than having the hassle of swing out bars, or having to be porn star limber to climb in and out.

Has anyone installed a 8-10 point bar/cage in a Mustang and still successfully used the rear seat for a passenger? I know they'd likely have to sit crossways because of the main hoop D braces, but what about just gaining entrance?

[Rory428]

Not sure about NHRAs ruling on the dropped side bars, but my Fairmont and old 85 Mustang both used swing out side bars on the drivers side, never really considered them to be much hassle at all. As for the back seat, Hell, they are not really useable even without a roll bar!

[afret]

I figured it would be easy to do and make it much easier to get in and out of so we put a swing out door on the driver's side.   We put one bend near the floor on the front so the bar will clear most of the stuff on the door panels.



I wouldn't put passengers in the back seat of a car with a roll bar.  It's too dangerous especially with the cross bar in there.

[jayb]

I put a bend in the bars on my Mach 1 and never got any grief from the tech inspectors, but I'd agree with the other guys on the swing-out side bars, they are much easier.  Plus, you can unbolt them and take them off when you are not at the race track.  I have swing-out side bars on all my race cars, to make them easily streetable. 

[Rory428]

Not to mention, if you have to work inside the car, especially under the dash, being able to remove the side bar is certainly a good thing! A swing out bar may not be quite as rigid as a solid straight bar, but I would think that a radically curved bar would not be as strong in a crash. AFRETs swing out bar looks great to me.

[cjshaker]

I was talking about a bend that went down and followed the basic line of your legs, but Rory brought up a point that I had not considered, and that's being able to easily work on the cars interior.

Jay, I thought you had bent bars and I was looking at some of your old DW posts trying to find a picture of them but haven't found one yet. I'll keep searching.

Rory, I'm talking about a 9.99 and quicker cage, so I would think a bent bar would have a negligible impact.

I had thought about the safety consideration with the crossbar and thought a shoulder belt in the rear would negate that. I just hate to completely rule out a rear passenger. Just kind of brainstorming here to see if it's feasible, but with the required rigid front seat, I don't know that the rear would even be accessible unless they crawled through the middle. I think Chris Alston makes a bar setup that has a removable crossbar, but I don't think that's NHRA acceptable.

Thanks for the replies.

[Falcon67]

>Not to mention, if you have to work inside the car, especially under the dash, being able to remove the side bar is certainly a good thing!

I'm fixing to cut the cage out of the 70 for just that reason