It is accidents like this...

Mark Pombo Huge Crash - Road America - YouTube

That door bar design show what they are worth. This kia had very good Nascar style door bars and they moved in the shunt enough to let marks head strike the tire barrier. That being said had he had flat door bars its highly likely that Mark would not have survived the crash. As I understand it he broke his collar bone, his jaw, and took a big hit to the head. Any track prepped Z is going to have the ability to carry more speed then that KIA just something to think about. So when you thinking of skimping on a cage remember it doesn't take other cars on track/racing to cause a major accident like this one.

Just wondering, has there been any talk within GrandAm of integrating that DOW crash foam into the door panels of the cars? I know it's helped tremendously with side impacts in NASCAR, but might be difficult to implement on so many varying cage types in GrandAm.

http://www.fastcompany.com/multisite...5-slide-06.jpg

Wow. I remember watching that accident. Scary stuff...

Steve: is that foam a passive piece of equipment?

1) Mark Pombo's crash was so high speed that in a production based race car, injuries were almost guaranteed.

2) Triangular door bars do not allow impact energy to be dispersed slowly. Triangles are inherently rigid and as such, all the energy from a crash immediately transfers to the car. Notice how the Audi crash at LeMans (where the car was flew into a million pieces) let the driver walk away? Energy dispersion.

3) The NASCAR style door bars are not flat. The bars stick out to the side of the car a little farther as they get higher (or lower, I don't remember). Like the pic below if viewed from the back of the car (periods are roll bar diameters and the underscores are just for spacing)

_.
_ .
__ .
___ .

This way, the outermost bar absorbs some energy, then the next outermost and so on. This takes time and as such allows energy to be transferred to the car slowly, thus protecting the driver.

I'd agree in general but depends on type of events, tracks and level your driving the car. There are plenty of tracks where track day with stock seat and safety systems are adequate.

If you are an aggressive driver with history of driving your car off the track at track days I'd say yes invest in full blown crazy cage, proper seats, crash nets, full fire system, full fire suit, Hans etc. there are perfectly reasonable stages in between that are calculated risks.

To compare race car being driven at limits on very dangerous track can't be compared to track day driver driving well below limits on a safer track. Yes things can happen but likelihood is much less.

However if you're doing full on track car NASCAR door bars are excellent safety feature. Having top notch fabricator/welder is even more important then simple design elements. You could have what looks like a safe cage but if welder is inexperienced you could be in for rude surprise.

Those front brake ducts are sexy as hell *sigh*

Who goes to the track to drive well below their limits? :rolleyes: Also, you can never control what other drivers are doing and as I am sure you know when on track you are rarely alone.

I do!

lol

me too. I've got too much money into this car to turn it into a heap of junk metal.

Yeah it's a passive safety system.

FWIW, it needs some sort of skin on the roll bars to prevent it from pushing through the spaces (and to allow it to work properly). It's made by Dow and is called Impaxx.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1328230188.jpg

Couldn't agree more.

https://www.pegasusautoracing.com/pr...p?Product=4525

what if we use something like this and mold it to what we want,

Heres me living vida loca with no helmet, no fire suit, no cage no harness. Just jeans and a t shirt with stock seat belts. I'm big believer in understanding your cars capability and your own capability as a driver. Not every track event is you putting car at 100 %. And there are more scary scenarios on public streets quite frankly than any real danger in modern car on fairly safe track if you drive car within limits. And I pick my track events very carefully. Always low numbers with very experienced drivers who value safety and their cars.

Vette on Spring Mountain - YouTube

I have logged thousands of track miles over past decade without a single incident. Frankly speaking I think most people are worse off with cage in street car on the track than to drive cage less. To be truly safe in caged car you need proper winged seat, proper 6 point harness with Hans, seat mounted low in the car to clear over head cage elements, proper nets and very well designed cage,

I could not agree more with the bolded statements. If you don't understand a car's physics and limits before pushing them too hard, you're asking for trouble. And while a race track can be dangerous, the roads are meant to be driven hard on, there is a medical crew on staff within a few minutes guaranteed, there are flags to alert you of danger ahead, there are barriers and run off areas in case you mess up. Public roads, on the other hand, aren't designed with racing in mind. They are designed for reasonable safe and slow driving. They can be impacted by weather and change surface condition on short notice, deer and dogs and pedestrians can bolt out in front of you, other motorists can cut you off or slam brakes, and depending on where and when your accident is, medical attention may take a while to get to you.