Roll bar. Keep or remove?

I have a Harddog rollbar/showbar in my 94 Miata and I'm not sure why I need it.

If I remove it, I'll save some weight and the seat-belts may work better.

Keep or remove?

[URL=http://s62.photobucket.com/user/fujioko/media/adventure/roll_zps05f984a0.jpg.html][/URL]

It stiffened the chassis a BUNCH in my '96. There's no way I'd remove mine. Plus it may prevent an SUV from parking on my head someday.

Is it tall enough to interfere with the top? If not, forget about it.

That's a "Hard Bar", no rear braces. If you're going to have the hassles of living with a bar, it should be a better one than that.

Either add some rear braces or remove it.

The soft top and hard top seem to fit fine. I actually forgot about the roll bar until today when I put the top down.

The car is street driven and has a 63 HP engine. I'm more concerned about getting rear ended than a roll over. ( not sure the roll bar would help much in a roll over.).

What are the concerns about getting rear ended?

Jim

Keith Tanner wrote: That's a "Hard Bar", no rear braces. If you're going to have the hassles of living with a bar, it should be a better one than that. Either add some rear braces or remove it.

This. A single hoop with minimal or no bracing is doing very little for you, either as a stiffener or as rollover protection.

Done!

Roll bar is already out and moments away from being listed on CL.

Thanks for the advice!

Jim

fujioko wrote: What are the concerns about getting rear ended? Jim

There's a reason the spare tire is in the trunk under the floor in a modern car.

Kenny_McCormic wrote:

fujioko wrote: What are the concerns about getting rear ended? Jim

There's a reason the spare tire is in the trunk under the floor in a modern car.

A wheel that bends hitting a pot hole is really providing that much crush resistance against 4000+ lb vehicle? ANd typically spares are even smaller/weaker than the standard ones.

I would assume they are under the car for trunk space vs being a crush zone.

z31maniac wrote:

Kenny_McCormic wrote:

fujioko wrote: What are the concerns about getting rear ended? Jim

There's a reason the spare tire is in the trunk under the floor in a modern car.

A wheel that bends hitting a pot hole is really providing that much crush resistance against 4000+ lb vehicle? ANd typically spares are even smaller/weaker than the standard ones. I would assume they are under the car for trunk space vs being a crush zone.

You actually want it to get crushed to absorb as much energy as possible.

Also, a bent wheel will become useless with a very small amount of deformation usually around the outer or inner edges. As a whole, a steel wheel is very strong at resisting crushing.

So yeah, it's helpful.