Mid Year Covertible Roll Bar

[Tom G.]

Looking for information on adding a roll bar to mid year convertible. I am trying to still use the top and top cover pannel in current condition but I would like to install a roll bar that will pass SCCA specs - requires a four point welded roll bar.

Thanks

Tom O'Grady

[Joe R.]

Re: Mid Year Covertible Roll Bar

Tom,

I have a roll bar for mid year Corvettes that is SCCA approved (at least approved in the 70's). This roll bar is for use with a hard top only as the deck lid must be slotted for it to be bolted in or welded in. A soft top cannot be used because of the position of the main bar itself and the rear supporting bars.

Can send you a pic or two if you would like to see it. Just drop me an e-mail and I'll send them along.

[Mike Cobine]

Re: Mid Year Covertible Roll Bar

SCCA specs says the rollbar has to be more than two inches over the helmet. Unless you remove the seat and sit on the floor, it won't happen with a car you can put the top up on or you are very short.

The reason one can fit under the hardtop is that the rules also allow bypassing the 2-inch rule if the rollbar is as high against the roof on a closed car as you can get it. This means a solid roof, not a canvas one. With the hardtop bolted in place, it was considered a closed car.

To get rear bracing that will work, and not just show well, you will have to cut the deck lid. The diameter of a roll bar is such that you will have a hard time squeezing it between the seat and the deck lid without cutting the deck.

Now here is another catch - rollbars in SCCA have been out for a long time. Roll cages are required. Now some vintage groups use the "SCCA spec" roll bars, but what they mean is using the 1980 and earlier specifications.

If you ever have to use it, you will wish you had a cage. A rollbar gives very little side protection and minimum roll over protection. The cage is much better in protecting you in both, plus it improves the handling of the car through better chassis stiffness.

Rollbars worked in the '50s and '60s because courses were normally in the country or airports with wide open run off areas, where cars simply rolled over if they flipped. With the advent of guard rails and concrete barrier walls, the possiblility of being upside down of one of those is not pleasant for you or your next of kin.

If you are in a vintage group that runs on street circuits (like the Long Beach Grand Prix, the Trans Am races, the old IMSA races in many cities, etc.), you will be running between two concrete walls. A rollbar is very outdated technology that is not designed to save your life in those types of circuits.

[Joe R.]

Re: Mid Year Covertible Roll Bar

Mike,

Maybe that explains why this rollbar is still sitting on a concrete floor and never bolted or welded to a Corvette. Maybe one day it will be used by a vintage racer and make him or her very happy. Until then it resides on the concrete where it's been for the last 25 years.

Regards,

JR

[Mike Cobine]

Re: Mid Year Covertible Roll Bar

The first vintage race I attended was in 1980 with the Can Am at Road America. Chicago Historics were running that weekend, although at the time, it was more parade lapping than racing.

Since then, many are racing, although they use lots of ways to define they are not, like "7/10ths", and so on. And while it is the greatest feeling to run an old car at speed like Fangio or a dozen others, many forget there are a lot less old racers from that period than from today.

Those cars were dangerous, and changes made, like cages, were to keep the drivers alive. And it isn't just "old fogey" talk, from 1988 to 1994, the only car road racing deaths I can remember at Moroso were vintage racing drivers.

There were plenty of serious injuries, but the only ones I remember dying were vintage racing.

At Sebring, this wasn't true, because vintage racing was very limited and there was much more professional racing happening there so there were more pro drivers to die. But at Moroso, vintage was probably around 1/4 to 1/3 of all road racing there.