How to: VAC Motorsports Roll bar/half cage Installation

[yokomo963]

Hey everyone,

Installed the VAC motorsports half cage in the 135i this week while I’m on furlough. We filmed the whole process and is a lot easier than I originally thought.

Mine is painted BMW performance orange and a link to the cage here:
https://store.vacmotorsports.com/mob...e8x-p3691.aspx

Fitment was spectacular on this half cage and would highly recommend for anyone looking for a half cage! I had no issues with the cage being off in any way.

Enjoy and hope this install video helps anyone looking to throw a bolt in cage to their car.

Thanks,
Eric

[$iriu$black]

Originally Posted by yokomo963

Hey everyone,

Installed the VAC motorsports half cage in the 135i this week while I’m on furlough. We filmed the whole process and is a lot easier than I originally thought.

Mine is painted BMW performance orange and a link to the cage here:
https://store.vacmotorsports.com/mob...e8x-p3691.aspx

Fitment was spectacular on this half cage and would highly recommend for anyone looking for a half cage! I had no issues with the cage being off in any way.

Enjoy and hope this install video helps anyone looking to throw a bolt in cage to their car.

Thanks,
Eric

How do you like the cage? Is it sanctioned by any club such as NASA, PCA or BMWCCA?

[yokomo963]

Originally Posted by $iriu$black

How do you like the cage? Is it sanctioned by any club such as NASA, PCA or BMWCCA?

The cage is great, I'm still surprised how well everything fit in and it was perfectly straight.

I'm almost positive this cage is not sanctioned by any club. By the looks of it, the main hoop wouldn't pass.

But the purpose of this car is mainly a autox and a Hpde car. I don't do any club racing or sanctioned racing. I went with a bolt in roll bar due to the fact I'm running Sparco Evo2 fix back seats and will be installing 5pt harnesses. So the addition of a roll bar was necessary for those two things since it's not wise to run fixback seats w/ harness without some sort of rollover protection.

-Eric

[$iriu$black]

Originally Posted by yokomo963

The cage is great, I'm still surprised how well everything fit in and it was perfectly straight.

I'm almost positive this cage is not sanctioned by any club. By the looks of it, the main hoop wouldn't pass.

But the purpose of this car is mainly a autox and a Hpde car. I don't do any club racing or sanctioned racing. I went with a bolt in roll bar due to the fact I'm running Sparco Evo2 fix back seats and will be installing 5pt harnesses. So the addition of a roll bar was necessary for those two things since it's not wise to run fixback seats w/ harness without some sort of rollover protection.

-Eric

I guess I meant to ask if this will clear tech for HPDEs. I’m not yet at club racing level but aim to be there.

Good to hear you are loving it. There’s not much aftermarket bars out there for this platform and I was glad to come across your post. Video was great. Thanks again.

[yokomo963]

Originally Posted by $iriu$black

I guess I meant to ask if this will clear tech for HPDEs. I’m not yet at club racing level but aim to be there.

Good to hear you are loving it. There’s not much aftermarket bars out there for this platform and I was glad to come across your post. Video was great. Thanks again.

Yea, it should have no issues passing tech for HPDE. I've actually seen people not being able to pass tech with fix back seats and harnesses without rollover protection in some of the HPDE tech inspections.

You're right though, there aren't a whole lot of roll bars for this chassis. I have a Bayside fabrication cage in my e46 m3 also and with a dual purpose car, I like the half cages for now because i have a little more rollover protection, but still safe for the street because I can't bang my head against a full cage on the street. At my level it's plenty, sometimes we forget how well the factory rollover safety is already on modern cars.

I was debating the studio RSR half cage or the VAC, but ultimately went with VAC because it is a one piece design versus other bolt in cages where the bars are bolted together.

-Eric