First up, the roll bar. JP Marketing promises a non- destructive experience that uses factory hard points, which seems like kind of a game changer.
first up, seats out.
Photography Credit: J.G. Pasterjak
We’re getting ready for our first SCCA Time Trials National Tour event of the year at Virginia International Raceway this weekend, and there’s no better place to do our final prep before the big event than BimmerWorld in Dublin, Virginia.
Our worksheet for Wednesday and Thursday includes the installation of a JP roll bar, which JP boss and former UTCC competitor Jens Polte has designed to be an entirely non-destructive inclusion into the F32 chassis. That’s right, an SCCA and NASA-approved roll bar that uses existing hard points and requires no drilling through your car.
We’ll also add an OMP racing seat and a set of Lifeline harnesses, which we’ll make sure are easily removable so we can drop the stock seat back in for daily use between track weekends.
After that, it’s on to some reliability mods, replacing the fragile charge pipes which can send you into limp mode at the drop of a hat, getting some fresh spark plugs and coils in place, installing some track-friendly brake pads and whatever else we can get to before noon Friday. With BimmerWorld’s race-tested crew on hand, we should be able to knock out that list easily.
Follow along here to monitor our progress and ask questions.
First up, the roll bar. JP Marketing promises a non- destructive experience that uses factory hard points, which seems like kind of a game changer.
first up, seats out.
That reminds me that I need some parts from BimmerWorld.
Same.
The rear descenders bolt to the factory rear seat belt platforms. One open bolt hole is used, and the other bolt goes into a backing plate that slips behind the metal of that platform.
Kevin_at_BW said:Same.
We should plan a shopping visit.
Time to thread the main hoop in. It connects to the descenders with clevises so it needs minimal jiggling once tilted into place.
Now we bolt everything in and together. All connections are to factory hard points like the seatbelt bungs and seat brackets. Really clever stuff.
Tell Big Dave that Jake said hello!
The only destructive event: two slits in the carpet to get it to fit around the foot tubes. Theoretically you could just leave it folded up and not have to cut anything, or, just remove the carpet from the seat rearward (there's a seam right under the driver and passengers' butts). But we went with a tasteful slice for the finished look.
And we're in. Maybe 90 minutes tops from start to finish. Completely impressed with the design and overall cleverness of this JP Marketing bar. Having a competition-legal roll bar that's completely reversible and requires zero fabrication seems like kind of a game changer.
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