Roll bar question

[m1spw]

Quick question, what is the extra bar that does down the side of the car next to the "drivers door" in the pic below? I've never seen a roll bar go that far - is it just to if you roll the car it hits that first rather than the wheels/bodywork hitting the ground?

[GreenV8S]

It's side intrusion protection.

[Sam_68]

GreenV8S said:

It's side intrusion protection.

If you are sufficienty bothered about safety to use side intrusion bars on a Seven (and, admittedly, they can be pretty dodgy in a side impact), then you might as well go the whole hog and fit a full cage. Apart from giving much increased rollover protection, it massively stiffens the chassis, whereas the side bars shown in your photo will only give a fairly limited improvement in this respect.

[m1spw]

I'm not that bothered about it, just it might be a nice addition. I wouldn't want a full roll cage (I think they look out of place) but side impact protection might be handy if I lost the back end

Makes sense, I didn't have a clue what it was for hence I started the thread

[Sam_68]

Unless you lose the back end big style, the chances are that the first things to make contact will be the rear wheels and the kerb. You would have to be doing something pretty bloody stupid to spin off fast enough to go into a lamp post or whatever. Sevens are fairly tail-happy, but they are also dead easy to catch when the back end does break loose - a quick lift of the throttle and a twitch of opposite lock will usually gather everything back together.

A bigger problem is being T-boned. This is a fairly limited risk on the road, but a definite possibility if you spin on a race track - hence the reason you see so many fully caged Sevens circuit racing, but not many on the roads or in hillclimb/sprint competition.

>> Edited by Sam_68 on Sunday 12th March 18:31

[m1spw]

Another quicm question which I have just thought of. Will full weather gear (e.g. doors) still fit/work with this extra bar on?

[Sam_68]

No, is the short answer.

You could get a special hood made up with slots cut out to wrap around the side intrusion bars where they connect to the roll bar, I guess, and the side screens usually just drop onto pins on the sides of the windsreen, so you could lift them off instead of hinging them open if the side bars got in the way (which it apppears they would), but it really wouldn't be very practical.