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MG Midget and Sprite Technical - Rear roll cage mounting photos

Hi,

I have looked extensively on Google images, Safety Devices etc... but with no joy

I am looking for any photos you might have of midget rear roll cages, in particular where they mount to the rear bulkhead / rear arches. Ideally commercially available ones but any ideas will help.

I have a rear cage but it has quite poor bend quality and its not something I intend to place too much faith in.

I am basically looking at integrating the IRS subframe with the rear cage and rear bulkhead so just trying to see what is available before I resort to getting a rear hoop bent

Cheers

Spencer

This the rear cage as it arrived, if I tried really hard I might be able to find to find some even longer mounting bolts than it came with!


S Deakin

I'm going to fit a rear cage to the girlfriends car tomorrow, So Im interested in this thread!

What do people put behind the bolts to spread the load under the arch?
D Tetley

D,
I bought a piece of steel 3 or 4 inches wide and 3 feet long. I carved chunks for it to fit as "washers" in the odd places where my bar came through the arches, and I used a long piece of it across both mountings where it hits the back of the parcel shelf.

Spencer,
That does not look like a very effective cage. Rather small diameter and the geometry looks like it comes with crumple zones... not exactly a "feature". From what I can see in the picture, it would collapse fairly easily in a roll-over. In hindsight, I would think that the most important factors are structural strength, fitting under the hood, and allowing full fore and aft movement of the seat. I doubt that all three are available in one bar.

My Midget's bar (I think it was an Autopower) does the first two (no, I have not rolled it over yet to prove it), but fails on the third. It is livable, but it does render the car a little less comfortable for long drives.

My Bugeye has a simpler bar that manages the second and third parameters quite nicely, but I would not want to find out how it would fare in an actual roll-over situation.

My other Midgets will probably never have any bar.
David "gonna build me a bar in the back of my car and drive myself to drinking" Lieb
David Lieb

David,

The cage won't be staying in the car, it is still in the car currently to provide a 'template' for the upper section clearance to the hood if I have to get one bent up. It has little to commend it - other than possibly being marginally better than nothing?

The full range of rearward seat travel is very important to me as I struggle for legroom. So my current 'journey' is to try and satisfy all three criteria but the rear cage will be welded in so hopefully I it will give me a little more flexibility on the mounting points.

Cheers
S Deakin

Spence - I should have some photos kicking around somewhere. The cage you have is not a Safety Devices spec ;-)

I'm 6'4" and have no issues with the rear seat with the SD rear cage. I do have the problem of my head (and helmet) sticking out over the top which is why I cannot do competitions.

I'll post you some photos when I go upstairs..
Toby Anscombe

Heres the first two...

http://tinyurl.com/8h3et9

http://tinyurl.com/8l87co

if you want anything specific then let me know and I will go out to the freezing garage..
Toby Anscombe

Some of my roll centre cage on
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jc691907/
John Collinson

Thanks very much Toby and John for the photos,

Toby, the fact that the SD cages rearmost mounts fix to the rear chassis leg makes sense as well. I was planning on doing something similar.

I am still torn between taking something like the std SD rear cage and create the IRS structure / subframe separately and trying to integrate them into one unit - I guess a bit like Z cars rear bike subframe for the Mini in you are familiar with them and then attach this to the rear bulkhead and inner sills.

This is as far as I have got with trying to see if it all pieces together under standard width bodywork:

Its all a bit busy with too many lines but it shows The Cossie diff, MX5 wishbones, the wireframe bits are the inner sills, the rear bulkhead and the fuel tank.

Its pretty tight but looks 'do-able' , it shows just the basic subframe with no attempt yet to integrate into the rear bulkhead or rear cage as I haven't decided which route yet

Cheers





S Deakin

This thread was discussed on 01/01/2009

MG Midget and Sprite Technical index

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