Autopower race rollbar with u-weld race in ITE in 2007

[eclip5e]

I'm building a 2004 WRX for ITE to start next season. After reading the rule books, it looks like everything is a go, but i'm wondering if i could run it by you gurus for any advice or thoughts.

Right now I have the Autopower bolt-in race rollbar as shown below:



I'm planning on buying the u-weld rollcage kit, and add it to the rollbar.


All is in from 1.75" x .120 DOM mild steel tubing.

I plan on welding the rollbar in when i do the cage portion.

Do you folks believe this will pass tech for ITE in the 2007 season?

[dickita15]

I believe that will meet the minimum requirements, although I don’t know the weight and did not look up the tubing size. I would if I were you consider a custom cage. There are some good builders in the area like Chris Howard. With a custom you get stronger, more stiffening and more interior room. With your car model so popular with the track day and rallycross crowd I think you could resell the bolt in cage pretty easy. It would be worth a couple of phone calls to check it out.

[Conover]

Yeah, go custom, they are so much prettier too. Plus that tubing seems kind of heafty, I'm not sure you'd need tubing that large, how much does the car wiegh? A custom cage gets you all the things above, plus may save you wieght, and look much nicer.

Also, from what I understand the custom cage is more likely to be tied into the beefy parts of the car, where as bolt in cages are built to sandwich the floor sheet metal, not as stout.

[eclip5e]

The car is about 3000lbs. How much should i budget for a custom job meeting the requirements roughly?

[Knestis]

You'll just need to locate someone in your area who comes well recommended by drivers with SCCA logbooks based on their cages, let them know what you want, and get a quote. It could be anywhere from $800-1800, ballpark guess. Getting continuous welds over the top of the upper tubes is going to be a bear, if the bar is already installed. It might be easier/cheaper/more effective to have the bolt plates replaced with welded ones while the installation of the rest of the cage is going on, since that's typically part of the process of getting the cage low enough to weld up the tops, before final weldment of the feet.

K