who else thinks a roll bar will cause more damage than good,on a mainly daily driver.

also did you win the car.

Concussion < Death. If you bonk your head, you'll get a nice bump, some blood, and maybe a concussion. If you roll without a rollbar, you're dead. Sure the miata has a low center of gravity, but most people tend to drive it aggressively in corners and narrow roads. Furthermore, you might be a great driver, but all it take is one schmoe in an SUV who side swipes you or a dog/cat running into the road...

FWIW, a lot of people (over 50 at least and many of them daily drivers) in the local club with rollbars and I have not heard of one concussion yet, but there was one member who died by rolling his miata without a rollbar and one who rolled his car and walked away b/c a rollbar. YMMV.

I'll daily drive my car with the M1 Hardcore bar. Better yet I'll do it (GASP!) with out padding. I don't think I'm anymore likely to get concussed on the rollbar than say the A or B pillar in most cars. But then again I run with scissors!

I have the Boss Frog Clearview, and I really like it. I picked it out due to its compatibility (glass window + hardtop) because my NA has a glass rear window. I also like that it is SCCA Solo 1 certified as I do take my car to track day events. Yes, it was a little pricey, but I figured it was worth it.

I'm 6'3 would i have problems with hitting my head on a hardcore? I think i'll end up putting corbeaus or something in before i get the rollbar just to get better clearance by mounting the seats directly to the floor. But if i did the bar first, would i end up banging my head all the time?

I have a hardcore and I hit my head.. im 5'10 (getting a race seat eventually). I like my harness wrapped around a bar rather than tabs. Greater surface area = less stress, the problem is that your creating a moment on the bar where with harness tabs its completely in tension.

Things are harder to break in tension than in a moment. Then again the force needed to exceed the ultimate strength of the harness bar probably would have killed me anyways

The roll bar discussion is mute regarding hitting your head, get padding... OMG i just solved the 15 year old argument that M.net has every week... I think im the next buddha...

Nope, got up to $5300, still didn't meet reserve. With $500+ in shipping minimum, that's getting to be mroe than I really wanted to pay.

Plus, with my evil plans - coilovers, turbo, MS, rollbar, harness, track abuse, it wouldn't really be right to chop up an M. At the very least, not worth a premium to get one.

I've come to the realization that my dream Miata isn't really what I want. What I really want (in a perfect Ha Ha kinda world) would be an R with AC. More realistically, something with the bare minimum of options (PEP/PSP) to get the torsen - that little sucker is essential, and I don't want to pay $800 for one down the road.

In the past, I had a couple of Datsun Roadsters (hideous little Japanese cars doing their best to be British, ugh) with rollbars. Never gave bumping my head a thought.

ALL HAIL THE MIGHTY BUDDHA:bowdown: :bowdown: :bowdown:

Taking your advice would have resulted in my death. Thanks, but I'll risk the concussion.

Mark

I'm with Mark. I had a friend walk away from a flip that would have killed him otherwise. I have mine padded, but soon I'm going to opt for lower seats and maybe harnesses(even for the wine and cheese runs)

To those of you who's life has been saved by a roll bar. I'm glad it did it's job as intended. Personally I will not put a bar in my car until it's needed for track days.

Can i have your car to part out after you die?

Why wouldnt you just pad a rollbar?

If you can find the one I totaled In Janurary on Friday the 13th., I'm sure some parts are usable.:eek:

There are 2 types of roll bar padding available. One is too soft: It compresses too rapidly allowing your head to contact the bar with almost as much force as an unpadded bar. One is too hard: It's ment to lessen the shock of a helmeted head contacting the bar.

When it comes time to start doing track days or HPDE's I will install a bar, Probably a Kirk or HardDog Hardcore and I will pad it with the harder SFI rated padding.

You do know there is more than two types of padding right?

Cmon go through and find something with the properties you want. I would probably wrap the soft stuff around the hard stuff, or vice versa.

But its your head.

Sorry I got here late. This is bad info in my opinion. Even though the SFI padding was designed to be used with a helmet, it will still provide a significant amount of protection on a bare head in the event of a moderate rear-end collision. No, I have no hard data or studies to back this up, just based on talking with people who've hit their bare heads on SFI padded bars. Of course if you get smacked at 100mph not much will save you... but for average traffic-light rear-enders, probably just a bruise and a headache... a slight concussion at worst.

You take a DEADLY chance in a rollover without a bar.
You take a slight chance in a rear-ender with padded bar.

Get a bar.
Pad the bar.
Sleep safe at night.

For those of you thinking about a bar and who aren't afraid of going to that other site. You might want to check out this group buy. It's manufactured by HardDog and is SCCA Solo1 legal. http://forum.miata.net/vb/showthread.php?t=205675

I might even get one for myself. (Did I just say that? :eek: I must be getting soft in my old age.)

Actually I only know of two types that are sold as rollbar padding. There are other things I've seen people try to use (I was an SCCA national tech inspector for a few years) like Styrofoam and hot water pipe insulation.

As I mentioned in my post above I'm considering the HardDog bar on M.net because I'm planning on doing some solo1s, track days & HPDEs.

Being as most people on this site are adamant about having a roll bar I will not express my opinions about them here again.

Oh, come on now, don't be a poop head. That's why they're called opinions. If we don't express them then we don't learn anything. I've had my mind changed plenty of times about many things. You just gotta come up with something better on this one. Why go out of your way come up with a reason not to install a potentially lifesaving device, when the only downside is an equally unlikely but considerably less severe injury.

I know two people who've been killed in Miata rollovers, both w/o rollbars. One was a member of SDMC and my next-door neighbor. The other just a buddy. Imagine you were the guy who convinced him he shouldn't get one because he might hit his head someday if he was ever rear-ended.

On a SDMC run, my Dad was driving behind a woman who lost it on a curve and went upside down in a ditch. She crawled out from under the inverted car between the top of the door and the ground, because of the gap the rollbar created by supporting the car off the ground. She'd be dead without it.

Well theres a shit loads of materials out there. I really could care less what the douchebags at SCCA recognize (and so should you).

That's a smokin deal, I sent Tom an email today, we'll see what comes of it...

'course, I still ought to actually buy a Miata someday... :bigtu: