Cages and scrutineering

[Evoluzione]

I only work with one kind of car and mainly the engine so my knowledge is somewhat focused and specific. integrales are known to have weak shells (they actually split in certain areas on the road cars) so when a cage goes in it performs two tasks, more so than it does in other cars . In order to do this the best cages are anchored to the shell at various high level places, the Sparco comes with various weld-in plates, nuts & bolts etc to do this. IIRC by the rear view mirror, mid way up B pillar and top of A and B pillars.

There is the background and I've just built an engine for a local(ish) guy who is going to do some rallying, I saw his car (for the first time) at the dyno and I noticed that whoever fitted the cage hasn't anchored it to the shell at high level at all, yet its passed scrutineering in the past. I was quite surprised at this, i'm going to advise he gets the job finished off (which is a bugger as it's just been painted and had the works livery applied), but is it the case that cars are classed as ok and pass scrutineering without being tied in like this?

[chunder27]

I think you are talking about preference, you might prefer to have this done, maybe the Abarth cars from Turin were done this way.

That knowledge might not be so available now so maybe this chap has the best intentions but simply the person who installed the cage did not have that the knowledge.

It depends how he is rallying it, if it is largely for sort of retro events or slowly sideways stuff it would surely be OK.

But if he plans on taking it into Dalby or Wales, you might be right I expect.

[Thurbs]

I don't know the requirements of rallying, only race under MSA and FIA.

I went with a Custom Cages group A cage which was welded in place, not bolted. We also bought the Abarth strengthening kit but ended up sending it back as the cage was way better than some small plates welded in here and there.



The cage is welded in to the top and the bottom but it is designed to only be anchored at the bottom. We added in extra bonds to make the shell more ridged.





As the cage is FIA approved, once installed Custom Cages inspected it and then gave us a certificate of conformity. No scrutineer has given the cage a second glance, nor asked for the certificate.

[velocemitch]

I'm pretty sure there is no mandatory requirement to tie the cage to the upper part of the shell. The cage is a safety device primarily and tieing it to the shell shouldn't improve that much. Not for a minute saying its not a very sensible thing to do though. It would increase the stiffness immeasurably.

What type of events is he looking at doing?. Integralles don't currently fit well into the Regs for Historic Rallying in the UK. Only on Stage Rallying is a Cage mandatory anyway. For road rallying and demo runs the cage need not comply even if fitted.