Topic

Just found this picture online (hopefully the owner won't mind me reposting it!) but it appears to have a roll bar fitted and soft top. I thought you had to fit a hard top with all roll bars.

Does anyone know what roll bar it is?

No idea, sorry.

It's a shame noone k ow what type it is. It would make a great safety upgrade...

That car is in Australia, so the bar will most likely be from here too.
I base this assumption on a few details, such as the CAMS (Confederation of Australian Motor Sport) sticker on the front bumper, the vegetation in the back ground of the pic and going by the rego plate, it's from Victoria (my home state)

It can't be that difficult to make one, it only has to be lower than the roof when closing.

Yes, easy enough to make bit more difficult to make a safe and legal one!
I'd speak to Safety devices or Aleybars (if they still exist). There will be a reason for the normal high cage. I suspect the reason is access when you have the full cage installed.

This is a very rough guide on what a rollbar needs to be an effective safety device, as opposed to a bit of cosmetic bling (like most "rollover" hoops on the market are)
These things need to be properly engineered.
So what would we be looking for: Well, apart from finding mounting points on the body that are strong enough not to give way from the impact of the rollover and probably reinforcing those mounting points.
The bar will need some triangulation bracing in it's design for strength and be made out of quality tubing with sufficient wall thickness to do the job, so as not to collapse or buckle under load.
It needs to be high enough to prevent you head from hitting the ground, imagine the car upside down with the windscreen removed (crushed in the rollover), the car will be sitting on the rollbar and some point at the front of the car, the rollbar needs to be high enough to keep your head clear of the ground in this position.

When you look at the rollbar in the pic, Old mates head is higher than the bar so this bar is as 'bout as handy as a spare prick at a wedding!
Note the driver isn't wearing a helmet (this would make his head stick out even higher) the event he's driving in won't require rollover protection, a club run, observed section trial, motorkana or some such.
That rollbar would not pass scrutineering for an sanctioned speed event.

The screen surround on the F will support the weight of the car, the surround of the TF is even stronger.

In a rollover situation it's not hard for the dynamic forces to effectively double or even triple the weight of the car.

Mind you given the low centre of gravity that these cars have, you would have to to something spectacular to roll one over!

I've seen pictures of them after rolling, they survive very well.

When I scrapped a TF I was wanting to use my hiab to pick it up by the screen, unfortunately I didn't have time, I rolled into the scrap yard as they were about to lock the gates.

talkingcars wrote: wrote:

I've seen pictures of them after rolling, they survive very well.

When I scrapped a TF I was wanting to use my hiab to pick it up by the screen, unfortunately I didn't have time, I rolled into the scrap yard as they were about to lock the gates.

I picked a few up by the screen surrounds when I used to work at a scrap yard, they held up well, unlike the golf & escort convertibles

Thanks for the advice guys, it's a pity noone can say for certain where it came from....

Roll bars do need to be above your head but remember the seatbelt pretensioners tend to pull you down into the seats. My brothers were in a clio that rolled at least six times at high speed and they all walked away! When the car was righted in the scrap yard their heads half stuck out of the sunroof, the seatbelt pretensioners had pulled them so low into the seats their heads were saved.... The word luck comes to mind!!

It would be so reasuring to have a full cage but lets face it part of the atraction of a tf is that is a convertable so to me fitting a perminant jard top seems a bit silly..