door bars, cage construction and safe egress

Funny thing about the rule is most of the belt cutters out there won't actually cut a racing harness.

Alex, I have one of these on a ring attached to the shoulder belt of the driver & codriver. ALWAYS within reach, even if you are upside down. So cheap you can't not have at least two when they go on sale as a FREE item when you buy something else at safedrives. They are also great when someone new starts playing with them and eventually pushes hard enough on the spring loaded punch to draw a blood sample from their finger. They never seem to do that twice...... ( they will cut belts too, tested on the end of an old belt just for fun, not cut like a laser, but if you were in a car that is on fire you would nibble through the belt pretty damn fast with one)

Yeah. If I recall correctly Charles had a post or something once where he talked about how he bought every 'seat belt cutter' he could to find one that actually would cut racing harnesses and that's what they sell. Moral of the story, buy from Safe Drives.

I keep one in a holder that is secured on the center tunnel, within reach of driver or co-driver. I think this is a VERY important safety device that everyone should have in their car.

As far as thinking about door bars and rally cages; on a rally car the door bars have a special job, and a tough one; catching that tree when the car is going sideways at high speed. NAZKAR style door bars, and most road racing door bars are designed for grinding along a concrete wall at 200 mph for 500 yards.

So, for what to do on your car, its a good idea to check in with your local log book dealer in order to reduce heartbreak, because in the end you have to follow the rules.

I'm glad to see that this is being seriously checked out at the top level, and hope we get some useful trickle down.

I guess that is the key benefit of the NASCAR style door bars; side impact. It gives you better geometry and more crush space for a side impact (either a car or a tree coming at you). Not as good geometry for chassis stiffness (as compared to X bars).


Another approach for side impact resistantance - doors with foam inserts. Pretty cool, and I'm sure pretty spendy.

http://www.e30m3project.com/e30m3performance/tech_articles/cage_symposium/misc/misc4.htm

The door bar argument can go on for days.
Another way to look at the mini door bars is if you do have a side impact with the bars bent your chances of the tree sliding to the front or back of the driver would be greater then the standard X. Lets face the facts if you hit a tree at speed in the b pillar no matter what style door bar you have your chances of walking away are slim. That small spot doesnt get hit often so if the mini bars give that extra small chance of pushing forward or backward then good.