Just curious if anyone here has had any personal experience with the Mazdaspeed roll cage? I have a chance to snag one for 300 bucks.

The prime reason I want this is for chassis stiffening. I can't order a fabworx cage out here, and harddog **** will cost me a fortune in shipping, not to mention rollbars don't offer significantly better stiffening.

You guys think I should snag this? Or if I would just be better off ordering door bars and frog arms?

Thanks again.

 

It looks pretty bare bones but for street use would be fine. For racing I'd want something with better bracing.

 

Ugh, scary, but I understand about the shipping. I left Okinawa last nov. God I miss that place.

My interwebs engineering degree says is should add some stiffness, you'll just want to add some SFI padding to keep from cracking your skull open in a minor fender-bender. Oh, and definitely don't test it's rollover protection.

 

I know next to nothing about building roll cages, but that thing looks like crap. I would not trust it on my car.

 

I agree, Lars. Typical bolt-in Japanese stuff. The bends to clear the dash are particularly troubling. However, there's no tracks on Okinawa. The most anyone does there is some drifting (which you can't do if you're in the Air Force...stupid base rules) and Gymkhana/autox. That's about it.

 

Random side question, what are the laws about modding cars like in Okinawa?

 

Pretty good, actually. Disclaimer: This is only relevant for gov/military personnel there, as far as I know. I think it's a different process for Japanese citizens.

There's an annual safety/function inspection required to re-register the car. Pretty simple stuff. One friend of mine bought a toyota 4-runner type thing there (a Surf) that had some larger wheels/tires on it. When he went for his JCI, they wouldn't pass him because of those wheels. So, he just hit a salvage yard there, "rented" a set of stockers, passed the inspection, and put the larger ones back on.

If the car is significantly modified, there's a process to "recertify" it. At that point you're good to go. I just never got far enough into that process.

With all the military on the island, the used car trade is huge, and prices are cheap. I lived about 100ft from the ocean and had my miata rust out from under me. Makes for a lot of cars in the salvage yard.

Ariles - have you seen the red miata with all the scoops and jacked up in the back? That one's rumored to have an SR20 swap.

 

The SR20 swap miata was wrecked a while ago actually. Parted out.

As for the laws against drifting, those haven't been in effect since 2007. Its just been so ground n pound into new comers to the island that everyone believes it. But I called OSI, Security Forces, and every other legal body for clarification. Being active duty, you are allowed to participate in any kind of motorsports on Okinawa, just need to fill out a high risk activity form.

As for the laws... technically, modding cars is straight up wrong. Even having little to no fender gap can cause you to fail inspections.

But in the real life light of things? Doesn't really matter, most guys just take their cars, rip everything off take it back to stock every two years, get inspected, pass, and put them back on. It's a pain really.


I'm not really worried about the safety aspect of the bar, I would definitely be getting SFI padding, but like I said... I was looking more for chassis stiffness. If this won't provide an adequate amount of stiffness I'll probably pass. (or hell I just might buy it and sell it back stateside to some kid who's mad jdm yo)

But if anyone has experience in chassis stiffening, I'm open to suggestions.

Thanks again

 

I wouldn't be willing to deal with the safety issues inherent in DDing a caged car just to get chassis stiffness. There are far less intrusive ways to get that stiffness (rollbar + doorbars, frame rails, etc) that don't have any of the downsides (namely a bunch of bars to crack your skull on in a fender bender).

 

Yeah, I'd probably end up going that route also... but shipping those parts would **** me.

But I'm gonna see if any decent rollbars show up (just a bunch of shitty cusco ones keep showing up for 100 bucks). I think I might just get doorbars and frame rails, or a butterfly brace since doorbars do the same thing as framerails, and if I understand correctly offer a better benefit.

But I just wish there was a harddog rollbar over here I could snag, that would make my choice very obvious.

 

I second roll bar door bars. That cage looks wimpy...

 

I cannot see that cage adding as much stiffness as a 4-pt hard dog roll bar and door bars. it looks flimsy honestly.

I know you cannot get them realistically due to shipping, but what about having someone locally welding up some knockoffs? Tons of pictures of both on the internet you can use as a reference.

If you do get that cage, get some high quality roll bar foam covers for the bars anywhere your head can hit.

 

That cage is more likely to kill you than protect you.

 

Depending on how thick that pipe is it could be a pretty good starter cage.