Original Works Roll Cages

[Isimmo]

Silly question...

But how can we all be sitting here talking about cages that are a poor fit or poor welding, when they are a critical part of a RallyCar's safety structure. Any 'poorness' should be out of the question, as it compromises the cages intended performance/purpose. Even in a simple side swipe road accident a poorly fitted/finished Roll cage could be more dangerous than not having one.

[LYT4X]

I think this is where the 'approved installer' comes into its own.

For MSA applications, the cage is assembled in the car and these days you must have 360deg welds. This means that you have to cut holes in the floor to drop the feet through in order provide enough space to perform a 360 weld at the (inner) roofline.

[Audi Derek]

Just found this picture of the cage that is FIA spec it may shed a bit of light on the shape you are all looking for..

[Booty]

Now that is the same rear design as most of the British cars. The fronts ( forward of the firewall / bulkhead ) are not on this diagram. Now, and this is strange, the Sutton built Coupe quattros ( 44 XMN and MAN 44A ) only had the 'inside' of the car caged. There was no structural bars forward of the bulkhead. It did however run along the A posts and down behind the dashboard ( speaker apertures) and then ran along, horizontally, just above the pedal box from one side to another. Now James ( Cornholio) has got the official pics of the Cq cage as for homologation by the F.I.A. and this clearly shows front bars infront of the bulkhead. Strraannggeee indeed.
But look...down in the bottom left under the dash you can see a diagonal bar which fits onto the horizontal left to right 'bulkhead' bar.


And AM Cars supplied Safety Devices cage ( now in my Cq and also Audi Dereks). Door bars not fitted. Good cage and fits very well but, and it's the only but, it fits just inforn of the dash along the A pillars.

[garym]

roger nevitt at custom cages did my cage ,you will see on there website my shell in their promo ,i dont know how it works with them and customers but i have known roger for a long time and always found him very good to deal with ,its like everything else ,you get what you pay for ,i have no problem in using them for any cages i require and in fact have just had them do my 205 t16 cage and rear end mods

[l7apk]

I heard that you'd had some issues with a custom cage? I was considering one (for a long wheel base car) myself, and I was wondering what your take was on this?

Regards, James[/quote]



I spoke to custom cages, with regard to a swb cage, they sent me photos of the one they had built for G.Midwinter, in various stages of construction. So I ordered one. I paid the full retail amount.
The cage came in cut parts as expected, but as I started to build it up, nothing seemed to fit. All the gussets shown in the photos were not included, neither were the tubes that come off the front loop and end up on the front suspension turret, the foot brackets were made of, much thinner sheet as to what was shown in the photos, they looked comical, so I remade all of them. The front loop was to suit a ur instead of a sport, ('A' post angle). And there was other issues as well, regarding the tube they used, but I’m not an expert and cannot backup my theory with this one, but I have kept a length of the tube and will find out one day.
It was hard to get to speak to someone as the receptionist, said the main guy wasn’t in and they would ring back, but they didn’t. In the end I had to send photos as evidence of the problems, they did send another loop and rear strut tubes, although the front loop was a better fit, the rear part of the cage, I could not use it. I gave up and bought 2 new lengths of cds tube and made my own.
To answer you question,
To get a proper fitting cage I think you should either make your own or take your car to a fabricator and spend up to £2000 for them to make a proper job.

[Cornholio]

I'm going to try a "local" guy to see what he can come up with.....

[gabriel.oconnell]

in that new book called quattro there are really great photos of the rollcages etc well worth a look m8

[Hamish]

I looked into the works cages that custom cages do when I was building my car up. I came to the conclusion that the only reason you would use one was for the look if you were trying to build an exact recreation. The design of them is now very dated, the tube specs are way out of date now, and lastly they are expensive to buy!

I would borrow or buy a hydraulic pipe bender and make templates of the main hoop and 1 A pillar. Then you will end up with the perfect shape for your car. In my opinion it is impossible to bend cage tubing with this type of bender without kinking it. Once the templates are done and fit nicely take them to a place with a proper cnc mandrel bender and have them copied exactly. If its a half decent place then they will be able to mirror the A pillar hence only making 1 template.

With it done that way you will have a basic cage that fits the shell perfectly and made out of the correct spec tubing. You can then hack up the templates and use the straight lengths from it in the rest of the cage.

[Cornholio]

I'd be tempted to do that, but I want it to have FIA/MSA certification......