Upgrading From a Bar to a Cage

Update by David S. Wallens to the Mazda Miata - Sunburst Yellow project car
May 13, 2013

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In order to go ChumpCar racing, our Miata needs a full cage. A call to MiataCage solved that problem. Their Miata kit includes two dozen tubes.

Before we could install the roll cage, we first had to remove our roll bar.

Then we had to remove the original undercoating.

The dashboard had to come out, too.

Before calling it a night, we installed one baseplate so we could taste some accomplishment. MiataCage's boxed baseplate fit like it was meant for the car.

The ChumpCar endurance racing series requires a full roll cage, not just a roll bar. We installed a Hard Dog for our initial track outing, but now it was time to get serious.

We had a few choices regarding cages for our Sunburst Yellow 1992 Mazda Miata: build from scratch, visit a custom shop, or order a pre-bent kit. We installed an SBox Engineering roll cage in our B Spec Ford Fiesta and came away very, very impressed.

This firm also makes a pre-bent cage for the Miata that’s sold under the MiataCage label. As an added bonus, going with a pre-bent kit means we wouldn’t need to tow our car to a custom shop and either wait while the work is done or have to make a return trip.

MiataCage has been offering Miata roll cages for more than a decade, complete with CNC pre-bent tubes and—here’s the kicker—custom cut perches. This turns a custom fabrication exercise more or less into a weld-together project.

The standard MiataCages kit features .095-inch DOM tubing and retails for $965. They also offer a LeMons-legal kit that uses .120-inch wall tubing. (We ordered the beefier kit.)

This isn’t a bare-bones cage, either, In addition to the boxed landing perches the MiataCage kit features NASCAR-style door bars, gussets and a kill switch plate. Some of the tubes come pre-notched, too.

Before we could install the new cage, we first needed to unbolt and remove our roll bar. We also needed to unpack the MiataCage kit. It comes in one 100-pound box that is UPSable.