Cage Triangulation Question

[ACS_Motorsport]

I'm aware i'm likely to get a lot of mixed views on this but please fire away with thoughts and ideas from the technically minded bunch of you!

I'm currently in the process of fitting a half Safety Devices cage to my 182 and the guy who is doing the majority of the work is ex WFR engineer so knows his stuff! And is such a decent bloke too! We have both been toying with the idea of triangulating something from cage back to rear damper towers/ strut tops (solid type mount) with a custom nylon bush. So he made a (for the time being) essentially a strut brace that we are looking into welding back to the cage with two pieces.

He is an accredited FIA welder so he wont have any problems getting new certificates made or whatever for splicing into the cage.

As all that area is kinda new territory for me the FIA, Blue Book rules and regs etc,

So whats the deal with modifying cages and keeping compliance etc and whats everyone's thoughts on the idea of tying back to the dampers? As the cage atm leaves the dampers tops still floating free.

I will be also eventually going to have the front cage going in also. The car is slowly being converted to full track so want everything doing right the first time rather at later date at more expense if that makes sense? whilst still having it as not used very often daily.

Cheers chaps!

 

[ACS_Motorsport]

Thinking of going back to the harness bar points/ nodes

 

[loggyboy]

I cant see the advantage of splicing to the cage, why not just a brace?
Also if he is talking of certification I'd question his experience, Im pretty sure the 6 point SD cage isnt FIA ROPS certificated, its just built to the basic specs set out by the FIA or MSA blu book. If it was ROPS certified you would not be allowed to make any changes to it at all.
So providing you use the correct materials and the welding is neat and appears to show good penetration, then it will comply. Having said that, is this for track or racing? If racing then many series limit the number of pickup and triangulation points, they want the car safe, but want to limit exploitating too much chassis stiffening.

 

[loggyboy]

Also, Its worth remembering when using standard spring pickups, there is very little force on the damper turrets, they dont take any loading of the acctual weight of the car, only the forces exerted when absorbing the bumps, which isnt much. You will be adding unnecessary weight.

 

[ACS_Motorsport]

Cheers for reply! It was me mentioning the certification of it really as ideally id like everything im doing to comply to racing regualtions so if I do decide to race in the future i'm not having to redo any work. He then mentioned that his has had his work certified in the past were hes had to weld some fancy triangle to prove his work is up to standard.

Something like Tricolore cup interests me.

 

[Mini182]

The fancy triangle you mention is just to show his welding is up to scratch. Custom cages do a similar thing with the self install cages. You can fit the cage and then weld a tester piece for approval.

From my limited experience if you are only racing here in the UK in club racing you won't be asked for any kind of certification. They will just look over the cage to check it is ok and conforms to blue book regs.

 

[ACS_Motorsport]

The fancy triangle you mention is just to show his welding is up to scratch. Custom cages do a similar thing with the self install cages. You can fit the cage and then weld a tester piece for approval.

From my limited experience if you are only racing here in the UK in club racing you won't be asked for any kind of certification. They will just look over the cage to check it is ok and conforms to blue book regs.

Yeah that is exactly it mate cheers for the info, think Im gonna need a look through one of these MSA Blue Books

 

[loggyboy]

Certification comes from fia approved bodies such as mira. The basics are 2 options for Cages, either use the blue book spec and design principles, or you design your own cage , submit that to mira for a destructive testing, if it passes then you alone can install that type of cage to that type of car only and you can then add a certification plaque to each cage you produce. The benefits being, if you design it well you can use smaller/ lighter tubes and save weight, draw backs being it costs a hell of a lot in both time and approval costs! Hence why 99% if clubman cages are bluebook spec.