Guys,

In a recent discussion, the point was made that the SCCA was/has banned chromoly roll cages going forward, with the exception of cars that were grandfathered in.

Can anyone provide any confirmation / denial of this? Given that the BMWCCA and CASC (Canadian Automobile Sports Club) tend to follow the SCCA, this could have a big impact on those of us who are currently running a chromoly cage.

If it's true, I suspect my cage may be grandfathered into Club Racing (which is still allowing alloy steel for 2003), but beyond the next couple of years, I'm not convinced it's going to be legal long term.

It also has a major impact on those of us who are contemplating running in the Open Track Challenge, or 1 Lap of America.

Seeing as my cage is a little over a year old, I'm not really inclined to rip out my chromoly cage (TIG welded) and install a mild steel one.

Can anyone confirm this for me?


Thanks,


Pat

If your car meets the grandfather rule, then its grandfathered forever. If not, then you gotta build a new cage. It may not be fair, but its racing.

As for the OTC or OLOA, cages aren't necessary.

Out of curiosity, what were your reasons for going with chromoly?

Bryan,

I went with Chromoly due to weight.... it's about 40 lbs lighter than a similar cage in mild steel.

My concern with OTC or OLOA was if my chromoly cage would make my car illegal, even though cages aren't required. IE, if I ran in a modified class of some sort where cages are regulated, if having a Chromoly cage would cause any issues.

I realize that my cage will be grandfathered in for BMWCCA club racing, but my concern involves whether or not I elect to migrate to another race series (CASC is looking to start a touring car series similar to the Speed Channel World Touring Car series).

Has the SCCA officially banned chromoly cages?



Pat

Originally posted by GR8 Ride
Has the SCCA officially banned chromoly cages?

I don't know. You'll have to check all the latest FastTracks to see. I haven't been paying attention, as I don't have any plans for building a new cage anytime soon.

FWIW, despite the weight savings, I haven't talked to any cage builders that consider Chromoly worth it. I'm not aware of them, but there must be some decent safety factors involved if the SCCA has considered banning them, and none of the cage builders I know will build them.

As for other venues where you might race, I assume if they generally follow SCCA safety rules, that they will also grandfather your car.

For all the searching I've done on cages, generally the only ones who are running chro-moly are the FIA, and the guys in drag-racing.

The dragsters do it for the weight savings, and the fact that alloy steel has 4 times the tensile strength of mild steel. Their comment was if they were hitting the wall at 300 MPH, they wanted the absolute strongest cage they could build.

The reason the SCCA is banning it (still unconfirmed...) is due to the welds; unless the weld is properly *normalized* (stress relieved), it's prone to crack.

This isn't a problem if the cage has been properly cold welded or TIG welded, but if it's MIG welded, it can crack under stress.

Damn...maybe I just need to take the plunge and order the latest version of the SCCA rules for 2003....


Pat