911 spec roll cage or custom

[WILSPEED]

I'm trying to decide whether on getting a roll cage built specifically for a 911 like one from Safety Devices or a custom made cage. I know a guy that does roll cages for off road trophy trucks but never a 911. A new cage from Safety Devices is about $800- $1000? and this guy would do it for half the price.

What do you guys think?

[juanbenae]

where are you located? that might help the brain trust here suggest someone local to you. i think that 4 or $500 sounds awful,,, well cheap.

[Cory M]

custom is better but only if the fabricator:

1) is skilled
2) understands the fundamentals of cage building (basic design,nodes, fit, tubing requirements, etc)
3) KNOWS HOW TO READ THE RULEBOOK

For a 911 cage you are looking at about $300-400+ in materials alone, so I would be extremelly skeptical of anyone who would build a cage that cheap. Building a good cage is a lot of work, which is why they start at $2000 and up (in my area). I just wouldn't assume an offroad guy would know what he was doing even if he is a good fabricator...

[Mahler9th]

There is no reason why someone without specific Porsche experience couldn't fab up a safe roll cage. However...

As you know, these cars have been raced all over the world for decades. Here in the US, thousands of them have been turned into race cars for amateur and professional events.

The Safety Devices stuff has been around for a long time too, and the one company that readily comes to my mind that sells them on the East coast has been part of the Porsche and PCA community for a really long time. If you speak with them and ask for references, that may help you determine whether you go that route.

Presuming you are in the Unites States, you may have access to local PCA folks, similar to what car 311 suggests, and at minimum you can network with them to learn about their experiences.

I always recommend trying to connect to folks with pro racing experience in Porsches. There are a lot of folks all around the country that have spent much money and time trying to optimize the performance and safety of these cars-- they figured it out a long time ago and there is a pretty accessible brain trust in many metro areas.

[Cory M]

Originally Posted by Mahler9th

There is no reason why someone without specific Porsche experience couldn't fab up a safe roll cage. However...

Agreed. But the requirements and designs are very different between disciplines: a drag race cage differs from a dirt track cage differs from an off road cage differs from a nascar cage differs from a road race cage, etc. If the guy can fit tubes well and is a good welder he can do the job. But a lot of experienced fabricators do not have even a basic understanding of good design and engineering. About once or twice a month I see cages online with beautifull welds and fab work but a design that is totally flawed. If you have a good fabricator who is not experienced in building road racing cages you had better show him pictures and drawings and be absolutely sure he understands what you want before he starts welding, this requires you to have a good basic understanding of cages too...

For ~$500 the OP must be talking about rollbars and not complete cages. I think it would be impossible to make any sort of profit on a $500 911 cage unless the required seamless tubing was not used, some serious corners were cut, or the guy is a buddy and is not charging labor.

[Mahler9th]

I don't feel that I have enough information to speculate on the circumstances here or whether someone outside of the Porsche world can do a good job and for how much money. To me it is theoretically possible.

But I am a big believer in leveraging the talents and experiences of those that have been at it for a while, with a proven track record and a great reputation. IMSA and other racing activities have created myriad opportunities in this regard.

That being said, even in our NorCal area, rich with Porsche technical resources, a "non-Porsche" guy gets a big share of the cage work. Now it doesn't cost $500... If you ask around the knowledgeable Porsche community, you will get to this business and if you use them for your cage, you will be satisfied as a client.

So I have an open mind, but I always suggest that folks start their "networking toward a provider" as close as possible to folks with pro racing experience with Porsche 911 cars.

[carmad]

I built my own cage, DOM tubing is expensive, I paid $ 500+ for 120ft of tubing about 2 years ago. It is very labor intensive, I doubt anyone can build a cage for the amount quoted.

[KTL]

Maybe the guy the OP knows is a friend who's doing it as a favor or a learning process to see how it can be done in a 911? One of our Lemons team members has a coworker who is a great fabricator and welder. Another team member has a friend (who became a team crew member) that used to race & fabricate, and lended us the mandrel tubing bender from his dad's shop. So all we needed was the tubing and a lot of labor to build it ourselves. I'm not suggesting anyone can build it himself. Just pointing out that sometimes there are circumstances where people can get things built for pennies on the dollar due to their acquaintances and connections.

THat being said, if you're building a serious cage? Good to have someone who's been there done that and knows a lot of little tricks to making things fit cleanly in a 911 and also benefit the structure of the car- like ties to the roof pillars, suspension pickup points and reinforcing known areas of weakness. However if you're just looking for a basic DE safety cage, Safety Devices will do you just fine. They build one of the nicer cost-effective pre-fabbed cages i've seen. I'm no expert by any means so keep listening and looking!

[juanbenae]

here is a link to the shop that did mine >>> TC Design if you would like some further photos try a search in the regional cal forum "plunge". both myself & another spec 911 guy have photos of our cage builds in two different threads.

[JoeMag]

As for cage cost... there's a guy up our way who is GREAT, has worked on pro teams, and built pro car cages (know P cars too). I forget what he charges for main hoop, but he charges about $50 per bar (bar = welded on both ends), so count up the bars in your cage swag something of main hoop and you'll have a rough lower limit. I say lower limit because I've heard from several folks that others have looked at his cages and indicated they would have charged up to 2x what he charged.

oh yea.... get a weld in cage. you'll be a believer if you've seen someone get really nailed.

[Tyson Schmidt]

Make sure the cage builder knows that your car will twist like a pretzel if not properly supported during the cage build. You don't want to have overlapping doors.

[WILSPEED]

I'm in SoCal area BTW. Hey Car 311 how much did the cage that you had done at TC designs cost you?

I really started to get serious about getting a cage after seeing cars flip at Willow Springs.....unforgiving place when you have an off

[earlyapex]

I've had a lot of cage work done at TC Design. His work is good and he is well respected in the NorCal racing community. Tony's prices are also very reasonable. My cage is pretty extensive and goes to the front and rear shock mounts, A and B pillars, and frame. Tony put in Porsche Cup style door bars so I can get more room. This is the stuff you don't get from a prefab cage.

[Cory M]

Originally Posted by WILSPEED

I'm in SoCal area BTW. Hey Car 311 how much did the cage that you had done at TC designs cost you?

I really started to get serious about getting a cage after seeing cars flip at Willow Springs.....unforgiving place when you have an off

if you are in the LA area you might check out http://www.piercemotorsports.com/
they have built a most of the boxster spec cages you see in socal..