There was an incident this past weekend at a local road course that I have been to many times. In fact I was just there a few weekends ago. This was a DE event and the car had a half cage / rollbar, race seats, ect. The car impacted a tree on the passenger side of the car and the passenger in that car was killed. Those side bars look even nicer to me now.

 

What track in this day and age still has a tree that you could hit? BTW the type of door bar shown in the first pic adds very little extra protection. What are the circumstances of this incident? Not being morbid but I look at it as an opportunity to learn and hopefully make my customers safer.

My condolences to the frends and family...

 

I was referring to the picture of the cage from your car not the picture I posted. Even better, I'm really thinking of NASCAR style bars. It just made me stop and think because the car in question was equipped with a half cage but the accident involved a side impact.

The accident was at Carolina Motorsports Park in South Carolina during a PCA DE. The incident occurred in a part of the track that is basically a straightaway. The car in the accident spun on antifreeze another car laid down. The passenger that was killed was an instructor. Really it's a freak place to go off but I agree you shouldn't be able to hit trees at any track instead of hitting a barrier.

I'd rather not speculate about it here on this forum as there are already a million threads elsewhere doing that. It's just that this has made me even more concerned about my safety. If you want to know more you can read all about it here: http://www.roadraceautox.com/showthread.php?t=28100

 

I read some of the info on the accident and it is truly tragic. It's one of the reasons I do not instruct anymore. Final straw was a 450hp RX7 and a guy who was all about how he was the greatest driver ever (just ask him about it). He just would not listen, had a ton of really bad habits from street racing and was driving way over his head. I suffered through one day with the jerk and found out latter he asked not to return with that club. He subsequently wrote the car off with another club luckily he was alone and unhurt.

Anyway back to door bars. The RX8 with the rear door poses some unusual design hurdles. you are stuck with doing an "S" bend to get a NASCAR style bar. This is even weaker then a straight bar. But that is the way that some people want it. Or as in the white interior car a slight bow is built in so that impact loads are transferred to the main hoop and front down tube before getting to driver. I'll try and find a pic to illustrate.

 

 

I didn't realize the "straight" door bars were bowed out. Thanks for pointing that out. It makes sense. I have been told that one of the purposes of the NASCAR style bar is to provide a sort of crumple zone. I've even seen them with staggered bars so that the top bar is farther out than the next bar down. I assume the main purpose is to have the bars as far away from the driver or passenger as possible. I hadn't thought of the rear doors requiring the S bend. I'll look closer next time I get a chance.

 

First 8 I did for SCCA T3