Nismo RC (race car) #001 on track with Doran racing

Sh0velMan

Thanks man!

Looks good, but those door bars are a little more than I really want.

I'm not cutting my doors, so a simple X style door bar is going to have to suffice.

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Fishey

I am not at liberty to show any pictures of the 370Z but seeing as similar photos to this one of the BMW 128I ran in 2011 have been posted on multiple sites before it gives you an idea on how the 370Z is built. That being said the 370Z cage is actually a bit better then the 128I cages but the door bar design is very similar as is the window bars.



Triangulated Door bars will not fail nearly as easy as flat bars. The whole cage would have to move and I would imagine G force would kill the driver before the door bars failed.

sig11

See what you mean! It's a whole different design for that section. Haven't seen a cage like that at the track yet.

Dwnshift

For those that may or may not remember ...I had a 3300 lbs mustang cream me in our first race with the RC.
The impact zone was from just behind the A pillar to the left front wheel.

redhoundracer

here are a couple photos from the crash at Barber as you can see in the second one the cage did its job where as flat door bars would have caved inward towards the driver

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Fishey

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.

m4a1mustang

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.

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sig11

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

Steve: is that foam a passive piece of equipment?

DivZero

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.

Shamu

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.

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dmhenderson

Those front brake ducts are sexy as hell *sigh*

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Fishey

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

Sh0velMan

I do!

lol

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Mike

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

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m4a1mustang

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.

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