Roll Over Bar - MK1

Technical Area Body, Interior & Styling
2

Now that I’m supposed to be older and more sensible my mates have taken great pride in showing me what a roll in my car will do to my head and gong on about “sensible cars” with nippers just round the corener.  To which I reply go forth and multiply in your horrible family wagons.  But despite that I’m thinking a rollover bar might be in order.

There’s a couple of discussions I’ve seen about these - TR LANE 1 or TR LANE 2and how they’re not proper rollover bars.  But doing a little research they dont seem too different fitting wise to some other entry level roll over bars available such as this one - Hard Dog.

Personally I’ve never rolled a car and in 30 years I only know 1 person that has rolled their car so the chances of it happening are small and I wont be tracking her so I dont really want to pay £400 for Hard Dog or Boss Frog.  I just want to have a reasonable chance if the worst happens and figure it’ll double as a rear brace to stiffen the back end a bit.

I PM’d TR Lane and his words are “This
is a very strong roll bar, but also gives a stylish look. I would be
more than happy to have this in my car in a roll! We have now designed
even stronger roll bars where the rear stays go through the rear parcel
shelf and are bolted to the floor.”

What do you think?  TR Lane’s item will support the car if the worst happens or need to find something else? 

3

 Plenty of opinions here [Y]

http://www.mx5nutz.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=26439

4

 Both the Tr Lane bars look a lot more substantial than a style bar, although I have no personal experience of them.

Mine already had a roll bar in when I bought it and the big difference is that it has two braces bolted to the floor down the sides in front of the seats, this then effectively ads side impact protection as well as roll over protection. It is very good but a real pain to get in and out of, It comes down to how much protection you want.

5

One supplier is “Hard Dog” - I have one in mine.

See - http://www.bethania-garage.com/testimonials.htm

6

 At the end of the day it comes down to what I’m prepared to do I suppose.  Given the chances of a roll are small I dont want to spend £300 at the moment.  And being a 93 MK1 I think there’s more chance of losing my legs or hips from front/side impacts than losing my head due to a roll and I’m not doing anything about that risk.

I’m in the market for a new style bar as mine’s starting to look tatty so for £80 including postage I’ve taken the risk - figure it cant be any worse than a normal style bar, i like the look of this, similar price to a style bar, stronger steel than my current bar, mountings are better than my current one so it has to offer a slight improvement.

Now if I was tracking it I’d have a totally different opinion.