8 replies to this topic

[pete l]

this has got me worried  

 

http://www.theminiforum.co.uk/forums/topic/303230-mini-rolled-at-40mph-pictures/ 

 

Is there anyone that makes a more discrete roll cage ? a less chunky one, it must be doable. I don't want the massive big thick tubing that is used in normal cages, thiner tubes must be available to be able to increase the strength of our little cars.

 

Pete.

[THE ANORAK]

Here we go again.....

[CityEPete]

I've got more than I have on my motorbike, I've also had a rear end shunt from a Citroen xantia that was doing 50mph whilst I was stationary and it faired really well.

The car in the pic clearly has a side impact rather than a straight roll.

[Dusky]

Unless you use titanium orso you won't get that strong thin tubing.
Also, unless you also wear a crash helmet and a 4 point harness you could potentially increase the risk by fitting a roll cage.

[sonikk4]

Like anything there are ways and means of doing things that MAY add strength BUT and its a big BUT where do you draw the line.

 

Roll cages are the easiest and quickest way of adding extra strength but it needs to be a proper cage and not a show cage. Now making one of those as discreet as possible is a big ask due to certain things like the thickness of the A and B pillars.

 

Now i know one man who has done something very radical with a mini and at the same time he has added a roll cage which is practically built into the A and B posts and along the roof lining bars.

 

Its very impressive as is the whole car but this vehicle is a one off and completely custom built. I have see it in various stages over the YEARS as its been built. Alan is a fabricator by trade with his own business, with all of the tooling needed to hand. I bet very very few of us will have that sort of kit laying around.

 

So therein lies the rub. None of us have bought our cars safe in the knowledge they are the safest thing on the road. We have bought them because we like the car for what it is.

They were designed before the advent of CAD, proper crash testing, etc etc etc. Embrace the car for what it is, an old classic designed car that was never built to be the ultimate safe car but a car for the masses that was practical and usable and above all else cheap and enjoyable.

[CityEPete]

I haven't even got seat belts in my other classic, single circuit 7" drums all round, it's part of the fun.

[tiger99]

A roll cage actually increases the risk of rolling quite considerably by adding mass up near the roof line. A standard Mini is very hard to roll, unless it trips over a kerb or similar while going sideways. it will never, ever happen on a plain road without an impact with something. Corner too hard and it understeers massively long before it will roll. That goes for the majority of modern cars, because the height of the centre of mass is low in relation to the track.

 

Can't say that about certain SUVs!

[mab01uk]

It should also be noted that a classic Mini has no crushable energy absorbing zones incorporated into its design unlike modern cars that dissapate much of the dangerous energy of a sudden impact

The more you strengthen and stiffen a classic Mini with a full cage, etc, you do get to the point where in the event of an impact even more forces are transmitted direct to the driver and passengers bodies. Even if strapped in these forces can kill, when your body is restrained but your internal organs don't stop moving until they hit something..... In racing at least two Mini drivers have been killed in recent years by these forces even though the cars with full weld in cage looked relatively undamaged.......most Mini race drivers now wear a Hans type device to restrain their heads as even the extra weight of their crash helmet can  break the neck under such forces.

 

Watch from 3.40 to see a Mini 7 driver in a nasty crash almost certainly saved from death or serious injury by his recently bought HANS device.......

[Ethel]

I was about to make a similar point. There's not much you can do to the shell without compromising something else, but you can certainly look for seats and belts that will stop you banging about like a brick in a tumble dryer so easily.