Hard Dog Miata door bars really worth the money?

But that's a roll bar which arguably does little to stiffen the car compared to the other options. CSP cant do framerails etc because it moves you to mod class I believe

codrus wrote:

z31maniac wrote: I'd say there probably isn't a trade-off, even with a full cage. Since mine isn't a DD, but just a toy/HPDE/Nice weather car, I think removing the soft top, AC/PS, insulation and trunk junk probably offset the weight gain. And all the weight gain is inside the wheels and some of it very low.

The CSP guys disagree -- as I understand it, it's legal to put a rollbar in a CSP Miata, but none of the fast cars have it because the weight costs them more time than improving stiffness gains. Of course, if you're doing track events rather than pure autox, there's other considerations.

Interesting.

Unfortunately, I'm not a good frame of reference. I did the framerails/butterfly and roll bar all at the same time. So I went from floppy to decent all in one shot......

Autocross is held on pretty smooth surfaces (if you disagree, put a speed bump in the middle of the course next time) and relatively low speeds with lots of fast transients. So light weight seems to triumph over stiffness every time there.

I have seen Miatas improve their times on the track with improved chassis stiffness. Even if the gain is due to a more comfortable driver who's not feeling his chassis flex, the end result is the same. There's not going to be a hard line where weight gain overwhelms the benefit of stiffness, that's going to come down to the power of the car, the chassis setup and the venue. Still something worth considering though.

vortexblue wrote: Miataman, I have Sparco Sprints and doorbars in my 90. Where are you located? I'm in NJ if you want to come check them out. I like the doorbars, and don't notice that they're there when driving, but they are in my track car. I can see them being a pain for daily use.

I'm in Leesburg, Fl....good long ways from NJ. I'll talk to the team owner of 5X Racing this weekend when I go to the NASA event in Sebring about the door bars with the seat mount 5X sells.

Keith, I'll be putting in some track time xome spring in the form of HPDE. The stiffness will be of consideration come then.