Making car safer without fitting roll cage
Discussion
Your advice please.
I've got a mk1 Golf which I occasionally sprint and hillclimb. I run in one of the lowest classes and am "legal" to compete with the standard 3 point belt and no cage.
For lots of valid reasons I don't want to fit a roll cage (this isn't final but I definitely don’t want a full cage, could get just one behind the seats).
I would like to make it safer though. Is there anything I can do - I was considering Hans, seat, harness but my research suggests that all of these have issues without a cage.
Thanks
I've got a mk1 Golf which I occasionally sprint and hillclimb. I run in one of the lowest classes and am "legal" to compete with the standard 3 point belt and no cage.
For lots of valid reasons I don't want to fit a roll cage (this isn't final but I definitely don’t want a full cage, could get just one behind the seats).
I would like to make it safer though. Is there anything I can do - I was considering Hans, seat, harness but my research suggests that all of these have issues without a cage.
Thanks
Thanks for all the replies. Plenty to think about.
I agree that it is all about the amount of risk one is willing to take. Since I got married and had a family I have stopped riding a motorcycle, for example. However, it is possible to manage the risk and that is what I was enquiring about.
A few extra details: I didn't want to get into a discussion about why I didn't want a full cage but one or two people have guessed wrongly so I'll explain that it is, ironically, safety related. I use the same car for sprints, the odd hillclimb and for 12 car and classic road rallies. For the latter two helmets are definately not allowed as it would look like racing on the road. I did have a full cage in my last competition car which meant that the bar the crosses at the top of the windscreen was about 3 or 4 inches closer to my head than the windscreen would be. So, in probably the most likely crash - slithering into a tree at 20mph or colliding with another road user at low speed - there is a good chance of the middle of my forehead hitting a very solid cage and a fairly slow accident having a big impact.
I agree that venue is important. I mainly do sprints so there is plenty of run off. Hills tend to be pretty slow - the only one I think of as being high speed is Hollow at Gurston, but I've only been to 4 or 5 hills. I competed at Goodwood (with a full cage / seat / belts) once and wouldn't do again without similar gear. Its too fast and, to be frank, I never really felt that I had got to grips with it (though I was only a few tenths of the class record so I'd like to go back one day...)
So, I'll pick venues carefully and think about seat, extinguisher rear cage and harnesses.
I agree that it is all about the amount of risk one is willing to take. Since I got married and had a family I have stopped riding a motorcycle, for example. However, it is possible to manage the risk and that is what I was enquiring about.
A few extra details: I didn't want to get into a discussion about why I didn't want a full cage but one or two people have guessed wrongly so I'll explain that it is, ironically, safety related. I use the same car for sprints, the odd hillclimb and for 12 car and classic road rallies. For the latter two helmets are definately not allowed as it would look like racing on the road. I did have a full cage in my last competition car which meant that the bar the crosses at the top of the windscreen was about 3 or 4 inches closer to my head than the windscreen would be. So, in probably the most likely crash - slithering into a tree at 20mph or colliding with another road user at low speed - there is a good chance of the middle of my forehead hitting a very solid cage and a fairly slow accident having a big impact.
I agree that venue is important. I mainly do sprints so there is plenty of run off. Hills tend to be pretty slow - the only one I think of as being high speed is Hollow at Gurston, but I've only been to 4 or 5 hills. I competed at Goodwood (with a full cage / seat / belts) once and wouldn't do again without similar gear. Its too fast and, to be frank, I never really felt that I had got to grips with it (though I was only a few tenths of the class record so I'd like to go back one day...)
So, I'll pick venues carefully and think about seat, extinguisher rear cage and harnesses.
Gassing Station | UK Club Motorsport | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff