The 24 Hours of Lemons Forums → Lemons Tech → Roof question
Hello new here.
Going to the Chicago race.
Our car had t tops, and we sold them to bring the cost down. Can we fill them in with window nets, and not have to have arm restrants?
We would rather have that than weld something in solid.
Thanks
Sod Buster
If you did sheet metal you wouldn't need arm restraints. Netting I'm thinking they still would want it though, to good of a chance of an arm getting stuck under the car.
Just weld in a piece of sheet metal. Arm restraints can be found for like $20 and are no big deal. We will have in our car as it is a convertible. Unless it rains at the Chicago race, then it will be a hard top. Look forward to meeting everyone at the Chicago race.
IMHO, arm restraints are a PITA. I'd just weld in or rivet in a sheet of aluminum over the t-top gaps.
I heard rumors that you can have are restraints and just not hook them up. I mean, if you think you're competent enough (in emergency situations) not to stick your arms up out the roof in the event of a crash/rollover. I'm a bit of a daredevil myself so if I had a convertible/open roof car, me thinks that's what I would do. Of course...
Lemons staff checks them on your way out to the track. I suppose that you could undo them once you roll past the check, but if you made it back into judging following a black flag and the judges saw that you'd been driving with them undone, I suspect you would lose your wristband for the weekend (if not longer) and your team would suffer a severe and lengthy penalty even after they threw you under the bus. YMMV.
sheet metal is going back in.
Thanks for the replies
I heard rumors that you can have are restraints and just not hook them up. I mean, if you think you're competent enough (in emergency situations) not to stick your arms up out the roof in the event of a crash/rollover. I'm a bit of a daredevil myself so if I had a convertible/open roof car, me thinks that's what I would do. Of course...
In a roll over there is no way you can control your arms. Sorry Newton's laws win on this one. I see no reason not use them in an open car.
In a roll over there is no way you can control your arms. Sorry Newton's laws win on this one. I see no reason not use them in an open car.
When you said that, I envisioned Kermit The Frog doing his Muppet Show introduction with his arms all askew and flying in the air. You mean that kind of body control?
JD1969 wrote:In a roll over there is no way you can control your arms. Sorry Newton's laws win on this one. I see no reason not use them in an open car.
When you said that, I envisioned Kermit The Frog doing his Muppet Show introduction with his arms all askew and flying in the air. You mean that kind of body control?
Exactly!! I had the same image in my mind....get out of my head.
"And now ladies and gentlemen, John Denver! Yeeeeaaaaaa!!!!"
nut_job_jeff wrote:I heard rumors that you can have are restraints and just not hook them up. I mean, if you think you're competent enough (in emergency situations) not to stick your arms up out the roof in the event of a crash/rollover. I'm a bit of a daredevil myself so if I had a convertible/open roof car, me thinks that's what I would do. Of course...
In a roll over there is no way you can control your arms. Sorry Newton's laws win on this one. I see no reason not use them in an open car.
While I have never been in a roll over, I have seen many videos of guys holding onto either the wheel, or their chest straps for the duration of a crash. I have however driven formula cars without arm restraints, and felt more comfortable than being in a production car with window nets.
Been on my lid a couple of times, once end over end. Couldn't hold my hands on the wheel either time. The mandated window nets are IMO a menace. the side over roll had a fire and I was out the passenger window (and into traffic) so fast I ripped the seat out of my suit. I doubt I would have fumbled for the latch anyway because instinct, mine at least, said get the hell out through the first opening I saw. Please, no window nets!
Window nets are optional in Lemons as far as I can tell and I personally don't care for them. I had one in a drag car and I never liked and felt it hung up on me a few times (in non-emergency situations) . As for arm restraints, we have a convertible, I will choose to use mine. What others do is up to them.
Been over in a car w/o a roll cage. interesting experience.
Programming from years of racing ~and thinking through all possibilities~ made for a less than awful outcome, only a dislocation or two and a helluva whiplash two years later.
~that said, it was a hard-top and I am alive to say it would have been messy for the cleanup crew w/o the steel over my head.
Doors opened on wheels-down landing with extra foot-power, there was still glass, in a few places, but there wasn't a place left to have crawled out if that was needed - Roll Cages are a good thing.
...on the exam of left-overs, I'd have to say window nets are a plus or minus - this rollover would not have used them ~ and the hardware would still have been accessible even with the massive deformation a no-cage car took if it had been installed like recommended (with a seatbelt snap on one end) - just one more thing to shed on the way out...
~also, hands low on the wheel, cradled and open rib cage, head down, eyes closed, feet high on pedals and about squat-pressure in legs, I flipped "'bout eight" times with an endo... Arm restraints would have not made any difference, I Still would have scragged the CS and rotator cuff when the B-pillar came to get me.
- BUT, if I'd endoed and then flipped, (shown in a few vids of other mini's doing acrobatics) the doors rip off - and THEN I would have liked to have had arm restraints...
For this cage and this car I like no net and left arm-restraint.
I think it comes down to carefully analyzing your cage/seat/car and choosing what is most EFFECTIVE for the racing purpose (in this case Lemons) you are involved in.
Minor hi-jack. We made our roll cage slightly taller than the roof of the car (tall driver/seat mounts). I was wondering if I could weld the roof back on at the A-pillar, and than just weld it to the main hoop and cut the rest off? Will this be looked down upon?
"hijack" I've seen cars like that at SCCA races... but it was a long time ago I see no reason you can't it's Lemons Hoopty and sure to get comments.
~that said, just don't screw up and way over heat the welds and ruin the integrity of the main hoop.
... and if in doubt, use conduit clamps and bolt it to the hoop instead of weld.
Minor hi-jack. We made our roll cage slightly taller than the roof of the car (tall driver/seat mounts). I was wondering if I could weld the roof back on at the A-pillar, and than just weld it to the main hoop and cut the rest off? Will this be looked down upon?
I think that's basically what the Eyesore guys have done on their Miata. Except I think they used the hood as their "roof." Might want to surf around for some photos of their car to see if that's actually the case.
crazymike- thanks for that story.. amazing!
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