Happy to answer any questions about the bar and its use.
And, happy to not "overstate" the qualities of the bar....this is about safety, and we have no need to oversell the capabilities.
As I stated in the original post that we did on this bar, there is no substitute for a full welded in cage for safety. The normal group sanctioning body rules have had time tested results to prove out what works and what doesn't. At the same time, we have taken all that info and knowledge, and our past racing experience (since we have been racing at the Club and Pro level for 17 years, and have many wins and championships to prove that we are not just people who show up, we play to win.......see even our most recent results at the Global Tuner Grand Prix with out BMW E82 135i, where we finished 2nd in class, only to lose to TCKline in his Porsche.
Now....on to the bar. We had set out to create a full roll bar and harness bar, with X-brace and down bars, and a near shock tower brace that was COMPLETELY bolt-in, and uses all factory mounting bolt locations. No drilling, no fabrication, no welding necessary.
The tolerances are very tight in all areas.
These are the pieces
- main hoop w base plate and side anchor points
- harness bar (U shaped to allow for full use and articulation of the front seats)
- down bars that connect to the shock tower brace
- X bars, part of the down bar, so that it is all one piece for easy install and removal if desired
- shock tower brace (which actually mounts between the rear bulkhead areas of the rear seats, just below the actual tops of the rear shock tower).
The objective
- complete bolt in
- has harness elements (has a click-in location for the lower outer lap belt, horizontal harness bar for the shoulder sets)
- uses standard factory mounting locations that have already been reinforced
- adds secondary bracing where necessary
- has been designed to absorb the impact of a roll over....but, our unit has never seen an actual roll over in the BMW....we have in other cars of ours, but not yet in a BMW that we know of. But, it has all the full engineering to triangulate all energy transformations from a roll over.
It mounts to the base floor for the main hoop with a large base plate, which is bolted to the car in two directions for stability and strength. Thru the main floor thru an existing OEM drain hole, with a backing plate on the underneath side as well, and to the side frame rail where the stock seat belt fastening point is located.
The shock tower brace is mounted to the rear bulkhead, secured on each side by OEM mounting locations where an existing bulkhead brace exists....hence, we replace that with a stronger metal plate, and attach the shock tower brace to this. In addition, we made the base of the plate rest against the cross bulkhead of the car, another really strong piece in the car. This would help prevent flex of bow if energy were transferred from the main hoop down thru the down brace to the shock tower brace, and then to the mounting points....this energy would then be transferred to the cross brace of the car, essentially making it like a weld in location.
The rear shock tower brace sits just behind the rear seats, so that, should you ever want to remove the down bars / X-brace, you could, and still use the rear seats w the main hoop and shock tower brace in place.
This bar is in use in my daily driver today, has been there for 18 months, was in place for our competition events, and I drive A LOT of driving events w this car. I place my life in this car, and also use this car for driving instruction. I have full confidence in this bar (and if someone wants to know my background....here is a small sample - undergrad engineering degree from UCLA, in mechanical and systems engineering, minor in Math and Linear Algebra, multiple Master degrees...so, I'm not just a pretender at understanding physics).
BUT, this bar has NOT been subjected to stress tests or roll-over tests, and we are making no claims as to what it will support....all buyers assume their risk.
Here are some more pics, and if you want more, happy to shoot whatever anyone needs -
Bruce Todd
BRracing
Owner
