[eimkeith]

George! good to see you (again) online - reading you alot lately, lol! (keith from rennlist)

The main difference between this cage and the road course cages we build (and Geo has seen pictures of those and I believe is in agreement with their strength and efficiency) - is the somewhat octagonal halo that is pushed WAY up into the roof. After being at Targa Newfoundland in the fall, it occurred to me that a rollover onto a rock in a good road-course cage would still be bad news for the drivers heads. There aren't enough large protrusions on a racetrack (like a small boulder to roll upside down on top of) to necessitate that kind of protection. Sure, cars end up on their roof, and conventional cages hold up just fine, even with barrel rolls. - it was the increased possibility of rolling over onto a rock that concerned me about road-race cages in that particular environment.

So, we looked at some of the solutions of the rally cars present. They seem to favor a tighter halo, higher into the roof, with almost polyhedron-esque facets leading down to the more or less vertical pillar bars. Additionally, they have a lot of extra spaghetti, and many places to scramble your mental eggs, and as mentioned, really poor side impact protection.

We are marrying our road race cage experience with more overhead protection, the SENSIBLE bits of the rally-style semi-octagonal halo. This got the roof structure up and away from Casey's head, and allows us to put some crossing tubes up there to eliminate foreign object entry in to the cockpit.

Going this route resulted in a bend in the A pillar in a less than strategic place (as Geo can attest to - he's got good cage sense). We solved it by gusseting in a couple of planes. Visually massive, but efficient in terms of material, and strong as-executed. Keep in mind, this is a Targa cage, for a crazy pilot that doesn't have a normal man's fear of rocks and cliff faces. Normal insane road racers get the less-is-more, tried and proven design we build.

The cage will become to resemble our road-race cage more and more as it nears the floor pan.

Stay tuned, we'll continue to not notice the "spy" cameras in the shop as the cage is filled out...