"daender" (daender)
01/19/2016 at 18:46 • Filed to: miata, safety
7
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"daender" (daender)
01/19/2016 at 18:46 • Filed to: miata, safety | 7
| 27 |
These are the remains of a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . As you can see this particular MX-5 has the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , to better capture that old British roadster look, and the coveted hardtop that’s desired by track day bros and Spec Miata pros. Neither of those helped jack shit in the event of this rollover and won’t help you when you can’t keep the shiny side up.
Hardtop? Crushed, sheared off around the “b-pillar” near the rear of the roof. While these roofs are sometimes good enough to pass track inspection for amatuer track days, they certainly won’t save you in the event of a rollover. They’re not made out of metal so they will snap and break. Look at the windshield frame, it folded down into the cockpit, if the occupants were seated too close then it’d smack down right on top of their heads.
Style bar? How about MOUSE TRAP . It held up fine, but the bolts holding it, the seat belt retainers and the cockpit brace came right out of its hole. If the hardtop or windshield didn’t kill the occupants, then this would finish the job.
Remember : if you’re going to buy a bar, then buy a proper roll bar that ties into the frame and also put proper padding on it so you don’t get a nasty concussion from being rear-ended .
Don’t lead yourself or others into a false sense of security just because your 150$ chrome bar looks the part or your 1k$ hardtop makes you Miata look like a rigid coupe.
That concludes this derp’s rant/warning. Stay safe out there, fellow convertible owners.
HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles
> daender
01/19/2016 at 18:52 |
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Those style bars really are scary. If I ever bought a car with one I’d remove it immediately. You’re clearly better off with out them.
PS9
> daender
01/19/2016 at 18:57 |
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Exhibit A: Why I will never buy a Convertible.
RallyWrench
> daender
01/19/2016 at 18:58 |
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Hard Dog or GTFO.
Eric @ opposite-lock.com
> daender
01/19/2016 at 19:06 |
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This is why we wear helmets.
Aaron M - MasoFiST
> PS9
01/19/2016 at 19:10 |
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To be perfectly fair, this is why you shouldn’t buy an *old* convertible. The NB Miata was pretty much the last roadster on the market that didn’t have some sort of integrated rollover protection. You’d still need a full roll bar for the track, but the roll hoops you see behind the seats of Z4s, NCs and Boxsters are functional.
wkiernan
> daender
01/19/2016 at 19:15 |
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The other issue is, if you get in a wreck in a Miata with a roll bar or “style bar” and you’re not wearing a helmet, you might end up bashing your head against it.
1111111111111111111111
> daender
01/19/2016 at 19:16 |
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The thing that worries me about a bar is hitting my head on the sides or back. Is good padding enough to prevent concussion without a helmet?
jjhats
> PS9
01/19/2016 at 19:22 |
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Rolling a car is EXTREMELY rare. It could be argued miatas are better at accident avoidance because they are light agile and have a very low center of gravity. You are much more likely to get rear ended and a concussion from a roll bar hitting your head than flipping your car and having a roll bar save you
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PS9
> jjhats
01/19/2016 at 19:28 |
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I don’t care about how rare it is. For whoever was driving that Miata, it only needed to happen one time. All the safety statistics and lightweight agile British roadster sensibilities in the universe will not bring that person back.
Will I ever be in a car that get’s rolled? I don’t know. If it does, I do know for goddamned sure that it will have a fixed top on it. No exceptions.
Chasaboo
> daender
01/19/2016 at 19:37 |
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That’s brutal. I was a photographer at a newspaper and saw the results of high school idiots rolling a Jeep. The “roll bar” did nothing, it just compressed. They were all dead.
Needmoargarage
> jjhats
01/19/2016 at 19:46 |
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Eh...I might argue with that. Most Miata owners nowadays like to push it on corners and many don’t understand what to do when they step over the limit of traction. These cars will usually oversteer in the hands of an inexperienced driver. A Miata in a sideways slide off of pavement results in a rollover all the time...the low center of gravity won’t do much if the two outside wheels hit anything other than pavement really. (I’ve seen plain old dirt roll a Miata in this circumstance.)
That being said, I get the worry about smacking your head on a rollbar, which is exactly why anyone with common sense covers them with impact absorbing foam. Every installation manual I’ve seen states this explicitly. Most people also lower their seating position so that the bar is far enough back and above the drivers’s head that contact would be impossible.
I chose a rollbar for mine. I prefer the chance of a concussion to the chance of death.
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Needmoargarage
> daender
01/19/2016 at 19:50 |
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True story: The last beater Miata I bought had one of those super crappy chrome Ebay style bars installed. After signing the title, I asked the seller why he installed it. “For safety man!” was the answer. He turned real pale when I then proceeded to bend it flat by hand until it broke off.
Frenchlicker
> 1111111111111111111111
01/19/2016 at 20:27 |
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Possibly but I think it's meant to be an added layer of protection. Just in case
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1111111111111111111111
> Frenchlicker
01/19/2016 at 20:32 |
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Without padding it would be like getting hit with a bat. I’m just wondering how good the foam is. Miata.net is full of opinions.
Brian Silvestro
> Aaron M - MasoFiST
01/19/2016 at 21:13 |
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fun fact the NC and ND bars aren’t strong/tall enough to pass tech at track days
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Brian Silvestro
> daender
01/19/2016 at 21:14 |
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If the hardtop or windshield didn’t kill the occupants, then this would finish the job.
Well??
Did it???
Frank Grimes
> daender
01/19/2016 at 22:13 |
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Can you send me the remains of the hardtop? I have a 1996 m edition and need a hardtop even a broken up one I can fix/replicate.
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daender
> Brian Silvestro
01/19/2016 at 23:51 |
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As far as I know, the answer is that the driver somehow survived. How well they survived is a question I have no answers to.
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Aaron M - MasoFiST
> Brian Silvestro
01/20/2016 at 06:47 |
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I believe my exact words were in fact “you’d still need a full roll bar for the track”. The OEM bits are fine for street driving, though to be perfectly honest there are very few instances in street driving where you’d be at real risk of a rollover unless you were either significantly exceeding the limits of the car or got t-boned really hard by something, which would kill you before the roll did.
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Frenchlicker
> 1111111111111111111111
01/20/2016 at 08:08 |
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Haha, going with that analogy you could put padding on a bat and try. Note: I wouldn't reccomend it, just in case.
Nauraushaun
> daender
01/20/2016 at 20:57 |
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Good example of why targa/t-tops are better :)
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daender
> Nauraushaun
01/20/2016 at 21:00 |
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Hardtop life is superior life above removable tops. I got a friend with a ‘96 Firebird Formula that’s dealing with minor rust around his t-tops due to bad seals.
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Nauraushaun
> daender
01/20/2016 at 21:22 |
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Except that you can’t have the roof off!
DarrenMR
> daender
01/21/2016 at 20:06 |
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I came here to say that style bars are mouse traps for humans. Glad its in the article.
Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
> Eric @ opposite-lock.com
02/10/2016 at 12:47 |
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Uhhh a helmet wont help a whole lot in a rollover. You would still get crushed.
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Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
> Frank Grimes
02/10/2016 at 12:49 |
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In line with the immediate reaction of "so how much for the wheels?"
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Frank Grimes
> Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
02/10/2016 at 14:07 |
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ha ha I was gonna ask too but mine are in ok shape.