Window Net in Stock Carrera

[pgeorgeson]

As I read the PCA Club Race Rules, all cars (including Stock Class) need window nets. All the nets I have seen are attached to a full cage. I only have a roll bar. How does one mount a window net in a Stock car without a full cage? (please include pictures).

[barney911rs]

If I were you I would seriously re-think about racing with only a roll bar. I was not aware that the rules still allowed this. You are giving up a lot of protection compared to the guys around you. If you are not willing to install ALL the safety equipment you can into this car, maybe you should not be racing it. I'm sure others in the forum will agree with me on this.

To answer your question, there used to be kits to mount a net to the door, but the problem with this is that if the door pops open in an accident, now you have nothing to protect you, including the lack of door bars.

[pgeorgeson]

I am just looking at options now, but I can't disagree with your observation about the full cage. PCA Stock class allows racing with a roll bar, but is extremely restrictive on other modifications. If I were to put a cage in my current car, it would basically make it useless as a street car. Therefore, I would have a "stock" car that I couldn't use on the street. If I am going to put a cage in, then I might as well make a race car out of it. The other alternative is to just buy a race car. I am considering all these alternatives (as well as just keeping the car as is and doing DEs and time trials for now), but that is why I am exploring issues such as the window net.

To PCA Stock Racers, do most of the participants have full cages?

[Tyson Schmidt]

TRE Motorsports sells a kit that clamps around the window frame.

[sfoster13]

Originally posted by pgeorgeson
I
To PCA Stock Racers, do most of the participants have full cages?

Yes

[Mahler9th]

In our area (Norcal) there aren't any club races, however we have an active racing group called the Porsche Racing Club that races in the NASA-sanctioned Porsche Racing Challenge Series. PCA-legal cages are okay, but we do not allow roll bars in stock classes like PCA Club Racing. Some of the other Norcal driving groups have "races" where roll bars may be allowed. Several of these groups have excellent safety records, as the racing is very sedate and mild... however one should be aware that anything can happen at any time.

There are several companies that sell nets that attach to the window from... some are very expensive. I think you can come up with a solution on your own with racing net and some appropriate nylon strapping and quick-release clips you can buy from a place like REI.

I think it is likely that quite a few folks still start out in the stock classes with just bars as they graduate upward from DE. Years ago that was the case. Back in the day, aftera few events, folks would decide what to do next-- eg install a complete cage or get a different car.

Some of the best drivers in the PRC started out this way.

[sfoster13]

I think that you'll find what many of us have found and that is it's very difficult to have a dual use car that is optimal for either street or track when you start club racing. You're going to have to compromise on one side or the other. "Stock Class" really is becoming a misnomer.

[pgeorgeson]

I have tried to convince the wife to let me keep the current car and buy a separate track car, but I am not making much progress on that front (and the couch is getting rather uncomfortable).

[ZOA NOM]

Originally posted by pgeorgeson
I have tried to convince the wife to let me keep the current car and buy a separate track car, but I am not making much progress on that front (and the couch is getting rather uncomfortable).

Stay the course, man! You can do it! Tell her how she can drive the truck, and the trailer would be so useful for other things...

[pgeorgeson]

Zoanas
I already have the tow vehicle and trailer, so I am part way there. We met at Infineon last October (as I recall, you were forced to drive your street car at that event). Are you going back to Infineon May 4-5?

Here is a picture of my car to help jog your memory

[ZOA NOM]

I remember well. I am hoping to be at Infineon in May with PRC. The track car is up and running with new fron suspension pan, and rebuilt 3.2 (by me ). Hope to see you out there.

[Tim Stevens]

I use a Force 5 window net. As stated above a roll cage is recommended but I use a roll bar in my f class. Here is a link http://www.*****************.com/product_p/f5_911driver.htm

[Walt Fricke]

I raced for years with only a roll bar in my SC. When I had to cut the car in half and replace the front from about the shifter forward I thought a cage would be nice - no chance the car would break in half at the welds, anyway. With it came door bars.

Since it was my daily driver, I would slide the Recaro SRD back to get out and back in again, then pull it forward to my preferred driving position (legs are short, I guess, so I like a kind of NASCAR position). The door bars are low.

Then PCA required a one piece seat, and the one I got wouldn't work with its slider in my car so the seat is permanently mounted. This gave me the excuse to use the quick release on the steering wheel I had put in earlier. In fact, I use it every time. Pretty much have to.

It keeps a fellow supple.

And I use 4 of the 5 point harness. The stock seat belt no longer has its inertial reel - the D ring up top on the B pillar didn't fit with the cage despite my having had the mounts for the stock reel moved back so I could use it. So much for planning.

The switches to monoballs, needle bearings, and brass bushings all around didn't hurt the ride that much. I've even gotten used to the thin padding in the one piece composite seat. So when I upped the rear T bars from 27 to 30 I didn't feel a thing. I did have a tooth crown get loose last December, but I don't think the car had anything to do with that.

Radio works, I have a functioning glove box, the Wink is nice on the freeways. Driving in snow was hard on the front brake cooler hoses, but with snows all the way around it is our snow car.

Because at the moment the other licensed vehicle is a GMC 5500 Topkick with hauler body. It won't get out of its own way in snow. When I chained it up the inner duallies kept it afloat, which meant the chains on the outers just dug a hole for themselves in the snow. And the fronts liked to push a little snow ahead of themselves in slow speed maneuvering, which quickly acts like a chock.

Normally Kathy drives the big white beast to work. She loves the looks when she gets out of it in a parking lot (being careful - at the first race we brought it to she forgot how much higher than the F350 it was and literally fell out). But today it is the red Porsche for her because the forcast was for snow.

Get a beater? Shoot, that's my headwork budget, or the new rims we need, or maybe even some EFI instead of the carbs on the track only car.

Oh, the topic: Back when, I fabricated window net mounts for the car when it had only a roll bar. One clamped onto the roll bar in back. Up front I removed the visor and used its holes to hold a receiver I made for the top net rod. While two sheet metal screws may seem a bit flimsy, all the force would be out and things would be pressed against the A pillar/roof structure mostly.

There were places on the door I could use to attach nylon straps to hold the bottom of the net. But don't use any snap together plastic connectors for any of this - they aren't all that strong.

The PCA club race rules have a diagram in an appendix on how to make a mount which attaches to the door's top window frame so you don't have to butcher anything. Yes, if the door comes open your head and hands lose the protection of the net. I know doors can come open, but I have yet to see this happen on one of our cars at a PCA event, and by now I've seen a few nasty wrecks, and learned about others. Still, this is not optimum.

At some point someone made and marketed a nice net system that slid into the window channels and was held in place with nylon straps and plastic buckles. The buckles are fine, as the straps just hold things in place when you open the door and are not tension members in a crash. Yes, if the door opens it is not there to help you, but I bought one and liked it. At the track, pop it in. Time to hit the street, pop it out. But with the door closed you can't release the net. So PCA disallowed this design.

The Force 5 avoids that problem with its clever accordion design, which allows a corner worker to remove the whole thing from outside. No modifications at all needed. The "what if the door opens" issue is still there.

But it is a bit expensive, especially for me with a full cage I could use, so I just made mounts for a more standard net mounting. Had to work hard to rotate the front top mounting so I didn't add a short dagger to puncture my thick skull were I to crash on the street.

While I was at it, I made up and mounted a center net and its mounts, so the driver's head and torso can't move too far to the right. Turns out that perhaps the most important function of the driver's door side net is not so much to keep your hands in the car but to keep your head in, but to limit the excursion your head wants to make in that direction even if it won't hit anything. The neck isn't all that strong in tension, and you don't want your head to try to fly off when the body no longer is moving and Mr. Newton takes over with that bowling ball which graces the top of our bodies.

Which is why arm restraints aren't really a substitute for a window net.

Speaking of street cars and cages, I have confidence that the energy absorbing hard foam padding on all the upper front roll cage (and the knee bar) tubes will leave my head at least no worse off in a street crash than would the unpadded roof edge and A pillar bits. I'm not buying the "don't drive a roll cage car without a helmet" concern. The old soft foam is worthless, but the good stuff is basically the same as helmet padding.

Walt Fricke (should be in the garage, but it is chilly)

[Tim Stevens]

Walt,

Wow... Got some time on your hands or what!! I did not know you lurked around PP. I hope to see you in Birmingham next year – Tim Stevens

[jaydubya]

I have the Force5. It works well. As mentioned it offers no protection if your door flys open, but egress is easier (assuming your door still opens...).

[Mahler9th]

The company that sold the door-frame attachable net back in teh day was in San Diego I think-- Dave Turner Motorsports. I had one-- lent it to Mike Lommatsche. Maybe he still has it-- I will check.