m.net type roll bar quesiton
 

K, here it is, my sissy ass question.

I have a HDSBDD installed, and I get scared at the track with my head sticking so far out above the bar (I'm 6', maybe 6'1"). Even without a helmet, I am above the bar, so I am considering getting a HDHCDD instead to raise the bar a couple of inches, and later on getting some different seats to further lower me into the car.

I have a feeling that the holes I drilled for the sport bar will not line up perfectly with the Core bar, so I'll have to drill more holes. Is there any danger in doing this swiss cheese job to the car? Or do the backing plates make it fine, and I'm just being gay.

Oh and the Core bar does sit a noticeable amount higher than the sport bar, right? I would feel extra dumb if I got this and it was only 1" higher.

Why in the Seven Shades of Hades are you asking this group when you could easily ask the folks who make the items in question?

Call Tom at (336) 922-3018. If you're too cheap to pay for the call, 800-688-9652. If you don't want to talk to someone, shoot an eMail to info@bethania-garage.com

close the thread please

Foamectomy?

I posted on here because because they have already closed for the day(closed at 5pm eastern) and thought I could get some quick answers on here from people who have the bar rather than waiting till tomorrow, call me impatient.

I'll e-mail them too, if asking here really upsets you guys so much.

I have no idea what the answer is, but the question seems reasonable enough. Personally, my plan is to not flip my car. If I was you, and I did decide to flip it, I'd just make sure to duck before hitting the ground.

That's possibly the dumbest thing I've ever heard on this forum... and that's saying a lot. That statement reminds me of guys who advocate not wearing a seatbelt so they can be "thrown clear" of the accident?

Speed, your problem is not the height of the rollbar, it's the height of the seat. The learning expiriment is this... go remove your drivers seat and sit down on the floor. The steering wheel is now about 6" too high and at 6'1, your feet might touch the pedals. IOW, there is a huge amount of room in the cockpit for bigger guys, you just need to ditch the stock seat and devise a safe/comfortable solution to maximize the space.

Almost all of the aftermarket Miata seats sit low enough, but the shoulder supports smack into the seat-belt towers and actually force the seat about 4" more forward than stock... severely limiting room.

My vision someday is to build/market a safe aftermarket seat that completely uses all the room in the cockpit.

Stock seats can be "foamectomy'd", you can remove the package shelf which will allow the seat to lay back an extra 2 inches. You can ben slightly the rear seat-mounts to get the butt to lay about 1/2" lower. Parking brake handle mod, and raise/lower the steering column to suit.

Here's my uber-seat thread... nowhere near what anybody would call "safe", but the car fits me like a glove at 6'4" and 250lbs.
https://www.miataturbo.net/forum/showthread.php?t=17783

Check out this thread on the results... POST#30:
https://www.miataturbo.net/forum/showthread.php?t=17806

Between a lower foam-ectomy and the Hard Core you should be good, unless if you have a freakishly large torso. I am the opposite, I am 6'1, and I am a few inches under the bar (no lower foamectomy), but my knees are jammed in the dash.

Well I'm in the process of fucking around with this horrid momo hub to fit my new wheel to hopefully let my legs free. I don't have a particularly long torso, but I have a long neck, so that's where the problems lay.

I already took out the foam from the back of my seat, and I have yet to remove it from underneath, but a sparco sprint is in the near future, so its almost not worth the hassle as of now.

Thanks for the info Sam, I don't think I am quite awesome enough to sport a seat like yours, but I must say it looks like a very very good way to go if you are 6'4". In my case I think I'll be able to get a sprint to kind of work, but the point you brought up about the shoulder supports does get me thinking.

I guess I'll just have to wait and talk to Bethania garage to see how much of a difference there is between the Sport and Core bars in height. Like I said, I'd be very angry if I removed my current Sport bar and installed a Core bar just to discover that it's only an inch taller.

Wow man... I don't even know what to say. :confused:

I thought it was fairly obvious that I was kidding. Guess I'll have to remember the <humor> </humor> tags next time...

Aha! So I talked to Tom at Bethania garage as per I_bader's instructions and he pretty much told me that Sam was exactly right and that a lower seat is the solution to all of my problems.

He said that he wouldn't recommend the core bar for any application other than a racing series where the thicker diameter is required. He said it is actually much worse for tall guys because it moves the bar 4" forward and only 1" higher. This would basically put the bar much closer to my head and only a tad bit higher not helping much of anything.

Now comes my quest for a seat that will fit correctly into the miata and get me to a point where I am low enough in the car to feel safe. It looks like the sparco sprint will be the first seat to look at for me, and if I bolt that to the floor, I should have somewhat ample room.

Luckily there are a few threads on seats already, but if anyone has recently discovered "the" seat (not "the" seat made of plastic, sorry sam, I couldn't rock it) then please chime in. The same goes for "the" way to mount a seat such as the sprint.