Anyone got a Wiechers Clubsport cage in their 996/997 ?

[sundayjumper]

Hi all,

I've been doing some autosolos this year and I'm being nagged to try sprints next year. Sounds good, but for my own peace of mind I'd like buckets, harnesses & a half cage before I do that. So I'm looking at all the options and it's a bit bewildering

I don't really want to go cutting up the car - it's a completely standard 996 C2 atm - so the various cages that attach to the seat belt mounts sound like a good idea, but I can't find detailed pics of how the Wiechers (and also Heigo as a second choice) actually attach.

There's some nice-looking cages in the US but at around $2500 before shipping & import that's going to be way too much. Not keen on the usual Tequipment one as the diagonal is wrong for a RHD car. I'd prefer an "X" rear brace. I'm not planning on doing proper racing so full-on FIA spec is not needed. I don't need use of the rear seats but AFAIK they need to stay put (maybe just folded down) to ensure I stay in the "production" class ! Also, I'm quite tall, so I need to avoid anything that restricts rearward adjustment of the driver's seat.

Anyone got any useful advice / recommendations / detailed install pics ??

Edited by sundayjumper on Friday 14th July 13:07

[sundayjumper]

With a single diagonal, the top should be above the driver to form a protective "A" shape over their head. The other side of the car, without a diagonal, will be a lot weaker if you land upside down.

[sundayjumper]

For clarity, I'm talking about this one:

[sundayjumper]

Slippydiff said:

Quite frankly if you're that risk averse, I wouldn't leave home every morning, let alone consider driving a car in any way shape or form, quickly.

So you're embarrassed that despite being a self-styled expert, you didn't know that cages are handed. That's OK. You'll cope.

Anyway, having got nowhere with my original question, I'm going for a Safety Devices rear cage. It will need two pads welded in and that's easy enough to do myself. They are (or can be) just below the line of the carpet so if I get another carpet from a breakers I can cut holes in that, then if/when the cage comes out I can put the original back in.

Photo from their website:

[sundayjumper]

Slippydiff said:

I don't recall saying I was an expert ?

In that case, you won't go on to write a long post to show us all how much you know, and how clever you are, and you are the best, and how you're absolutely not embarrassed at all about your lack of basic knowledge.

Slippydiff said:

You clearly think the Tequipment cage is in some way inferior due to its design. I don't.
A look at the image you've posted of it doesn't leave me thinking "that's poorly designed, and may not provide the necessary protection in the event of the car rolling" far from it.

But if you're really serious about rollover protection, the Tequipment cage wouldn't be my first choice anyway, as it's really just an easy way to enable harness fitment without having to carry out intrusive mods, whilst at the same time providing a degree of rollover protection. If you want a cage that's going to provide maximum protection with minimal mods to the car, I'd fit the Porsche OE Clubsport rear cage, (although it may not be available anymore,) but the slightly modified version fitted to the 996 GT3 RS is.

In your original post you stated you didn't want to modify the car to accept the cage, yet you're now suggesting welding plates in to enable fitment of the SD cage ?

The Clubsport and GT3 RS cages mount to the existing rear damper mounting points and the floor pan.

The floor will require three 8mm holes drilling (six in total) and you can either weld strengthening plates to the underfloor (as per the factory install) and then underseal them, or just have four load spreading "sandwich" plates made up (two of them with three 8mm nuts welded to their undersides to effectively form captive nuts)

It's been a while since I looked at the underside of the floorpan mounting points, but the floor isn't particularly flat in this area IIRC, so the size of the spreader plates maybe limited.

Oh.

Anyway, I'm ordering the Safety Devices rear cage. Unfortunately the factory shuts down during August so I won't get it until mid-late Sept now. It'll look like this:



And I've got some Schroth harnesses coming to go with it. I'll post pics of everything once it's here.

[sundayjumper]

Good news - the cage arrived at last.

Bad news - despite clear instructions about what I wanted they've cocked it up so it's going straight back

Edited by sundayjumper on Saturday 23 September 14:49