Custom Cages Pre bent cage

I'm going to make some inquiries on a pre bent cage for the 80. Custom Cages makes a MSA compliant cage for the 80. Will this pass the scrutineer's eyeball? these pics were pulled from the custom cages website.

Requires weld inspection and comes with a Certificate

Just make absolutely sure that you can get a Logbook with the MSA certificate.

The MSA certificate is NOT the FIA certificate. Some US santioning bodies will accept the MSA cert, while others will not. Talk wit your local scruitineer etc.

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Chris

What is it made out of?

Options are CDS or T45

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Custom Cages
The certification process generally allows for a lighter roll cage because it is a bespoke design where the diameter and thickness of each tube is optimised to achieve the overall strength required by the FIA/MSA rules.

So shy of calling them I'm not sure yet.

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heymagic
What is it made out of?

Depends alot on the car...they are all different.

The only way to really tell is get a copy of the MSA documents from Custom Cages, which will list all of the tube diameters and wall thickness.

my guess however is 45mm x 2mm for the main "structure".

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Chris

I don't think RA or NASA will accept the MSA certificate. If it has the FIA one then sure, but probably not on the MSA one.
The Custom Cage kits I've been involved with, which are Evo 7 RS and GC Impreza were both FIA certified and the wall thickness was very minimal.

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Grant Hughes

Hmmm, I've got an email out to them for more specifics, but you guys are raining on my poor little parade.

I was told no by Rally America when I asked about the ex-FIA cert'd BMW Compact Cage. NASA was a bit wishy washy with a decision and I didn't want to drop that kind of money on a hunch.

Had I installed it prior to being a 10 year old design, RA would've been fine with it. Once the 10 year cert expired, the cages carry an MSA cert which wasn't good enough.

FWIW, I was only inquiring about the T45 cage...figured if I wasn't doing it for the weight savings, there wasn't any advantage of using a 10 year old design vs incorporating all the newer cage tech that's now required.

Dave

I just don't understand what the advantage would be. For what it would cost (or less) to import the CC cage and have it welded in you can have a shop here build a NASA/RA/FIA compliant cage.

On the Compact, a T45 cage weights 100 lbs vs the 175 lbs DOM one that got welded in. Of course the weld-in cage I got has sill bars and a-pillar support bars that the FIA cages of the mid-90s didn't have. Seems like the MSA cages allow for updates to the orig. FIA designs, which is strictly frowned upon stateside.

Dave

You haven't seen the quotes I've gotten from the locals.

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aj_johnson
You haven't seen the quotes I've gotten from the locals.

I heard one of the cage builders in Colorado quoted ~$7k for an Impreza cage. You should call Grant. He needs more projects.

Dave

If it is a T-45 cage and does not have an FIA cert then it is just scrap metal. If it is a DOM cage and meets current 253 generic requirements it could work. So question still is..what is it made of??

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DaveK
I heard one of the cage builders in Colorado quoted ~$7k for an Impreza cage. You should call Grant. He needs more projects.

Yup. Another one I heard is charging $4k for a painted cage that is Barely Legal.

Wasn't there a cage built in Boise not too long ago that had to get cut out or was not or barely legal?
Boise to Denver is not that far. We even have two sofas in the shop so you could just sleep there. Seattle or Portland are really not that far in the grand scheme of things.
Or, find a dirt cheap to free Audi 80 shell in Denver, have it delivered to my shop, I'll build the cage off that and send it with someone out to you for Rally Idaho.

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Grant Hughes

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aj_johnson
Options are CDS or T45

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Custom Cages
The certification process generally allows for a lighter roll cage because it is a bespoke design where the diameter and thickness of each tube is optimised to achieve the overall strength required by the FIA/MSA rules.

So shy of calling them I'm not sure yet.

Is there any way to find out the specific diameters and wall thicknesses? If you you went with the CDS tubing, and the tube sizes were compliant, wouldn't that cage be ok? From the pictures it doesn't look like it has any of the weird design features sometimes seen in FIA homologated cages.