I believe any additional tubes added are required to be the same diameter as the roll cage in IT. The view can be very obstructed. Here is my view and my windshield braces are smaller than the 1.5 roll cage tube.
YouTube Video
Well, I guess I was wrong. Anyhow, my point was, racing my car is like looking through a jungle jim. You don't notice it once you start racing, but sitting on the Grid you wonder how you are going to drive it. Fortunately when racing, you are always looking far ahead. If it were my choice, I'd rather have a much a clear view as possible. Since my car is a GT car, there is some torsional stiffness that comes from these added braces.
A diagonal bar across the windshield would be one of the last bars I'd add. I can think of about 10 other bars that'd give better results.
From FEA that I've seen, you're better off making a diamond l<_>l
Problem is that pesky dashboard and steering column.
Scott Rhea
Izzy's Custom Cages
It's not what you build... It's how you build it
Performance Driven LLC
Neon Racing Springs
I think it was Carrol Smith that said something like 'the only thing keeping me from making a perfect cage is that g-d driver!'
I can't dispute your FEA results, but I know that the V8 Supercar teams spend a large amount of money developing their cages, specifically SBR. The diagonal is there for a reason (**They also put a diagonal in the floor). Now those cars have more tie-in points to the uni-body and that may be where the stiffness gains are had.
David Russell
IT Volvo 242
.... and I don't dispute that it's there for a reason. The problem is, you're falling into the trap of adding a cage bar for the simple reason that a completely different type of car uses it.. and you can't explain why.
Let me clarify what I said before. In Improved Touring, with our restricted cage rules, I can think of several bars I'd rather add before I got to adding a diagonal across the windshield. If all of those bars were added, and I thought there was still some improvement possible, and it wasn't obstructive to the view, didn't push weight up substantially, was able to cleanly tie it into tube nodes as well as deal with the dash/driver/column/heater core etc issues, I'd consider something similar.
I've never actually looked at the SafeRacer cage to see what the bar ties into, but depending on the roof bar setup, this looks right up the alley (bottom pic)
Scott Rhea
Izzy's Custom Cages
It's not what you build... It's how you build it
Performance Driven LLC
Neon Racing Springs
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