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We continued the “while you’re in there” Kojima mantra and added gussets to both ends of the dash bar that extend to the firewall. The rule book says the cage must have a minimum of six mounting points, but you can have a seventh or eighth mounting point as long as they attach to the firewall or front fender wells. Now, you might say “last time you said those weren’t necessary.” They’re not, but they’re easy to fabricate, light weight and increase rigidity…uhh…yes please, we’ll take two!
In addition to the gussets we added a couple of short bars to the top corners of the windshield area to triangulate the corners, as they’re common points of failure in rollover situations. The short bars will play a big role in keeping those corners “strong like bull”.
Though the rear strut towers were already tied to the cage via the x-brace and mandatory rear braces, we decided to complete the front to back triangulation of the main hoop to the strut towers with the addition of the bars you see running from under the front of the strut tower to the bottom of the main hoop.
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| The additional bars we added for Front to Back support are +2 points according to NASA Perf Touring rules. |
To increase the likelihood of surviving a side impact collision – we have a dislike for pain and death just as much as the next guy – we added a “crash attenuator” pioneered by resident geek Mike Kojima. It’s designed to protect the driver from injury in many ways. First, it adds mass between the driver and the offending car by placing the point of contact further from the driver. Constructed of thinner steel than the rest of the cage and bent in a manner that is more likely to give, the crash attenuator will also help dissipate some of the impact energy. While the x-brace is strong, it would absorb very little impact energy in a side impact accident, thus transferring it directly to the cage. Let’s not forget who’s strapped to the seat that is directly attached to the cage. Many injuries occur from G-loading and not necessarily from direct contact. The crash attenuator will only add to our confidence as we maneuver around and through traffic at ludicrous speeds.
As we work our way towards the butt end of the car, and the end of our cage build, we find the final piece of John’s artwork. The rear strut tower brace we lovingly dubbed the “Bull-Horns Bar”. Now the rear strut towers are connected at three different points instead of two, greatly increasing their ability to resist the forces our suspension will be exerting on them.
