Dear Dr. Beer Goggles,
I have looked at the a pillar supports and thought about it alot. Before we go to the bigblock engine we will be putting in a crossbar that runs between the 2 A pillar posts. A gussett between the a pillar bars and the A pillars might be a good idea - I will look at that. That A pillar comes from GM pretty strong - typical corvette rollovers do not cave in the A pillars, nor the Halo - they were engineered as rollpoint support.
I don't understand your question about the seat bracing. The seat is mounted to the factory seat mounting locations with heavier duty hardware - in a corvette you are limited by where the glass starts on the floor plan.
It doesn't show on the pictures because we were still fabbing it up - but the back of the seat is bolted to the diaganal bar in the hoop with a custom bracket and grade 8 hardware.
I haven't seen any Bulldozers on the salt or at El Mirage for that matter. My criteria for the cage is to build it as strong as possible - but do not overengineer it so much that I can survive the bulldozer - only to be barbecued because I couldn't find my way out of the tangle of bars built into a superstrong cage - that ended up limitting my ability to get out of the car. So the object is to survive a long multiple rollover - and to get out of the car on my own.
It took the good Reverend to point this thread out to me.....seems like dangerous territory to me , one scrap of airplay and I'd have half the landracing community after me for a royalty point...good market though.
On Topic.
Hey Carl , I was wondering about that bar that runs up the A pillar , it seems that a heavy direct hit on that (ie: a tumbling roll) might cause it to buckle in?...bringing the top section down with it...to where I notice the drivers seat is..How is that part braced? Where the bar bends from the vertical to meet the pillar seems to be a weak spot as I can't see a gussett or any method to keep it aligned with the pillar.I'ts probably just me , I built our cage with the thought that someone might drop a bulldozer on it.