Hi,
As a consultant, I have to start all my responses as follows:
Well, that depends.
There are several answers to your question depending on how you intend to
use your rollbar. I don't mean to be funny about it... this is a safety
issue, and there are persuits that are dangerous. You do not want to
scrimp on safety equipment. Period.
If you intend to compete with your car, you have several options. SCCA,
for example, has different requirements for road racing and Autocross. In
the former case, basically a roll cage is required. Figure $500 and
you'll not be able to operate your top any more. :-( If you go this
route, you've basically transformed your TR into a single purpose car.
SCCA Autocross, on the other hand only requires a "5 point" roll bar,
that's 4 mount points and a diagonal brace for the main hoop. This needs
to be a certain height above your head, so as you might guess, forget
about using the top on this setup too. Unless you're real short and you
have the main hoop custom fabricated.
Note: SCCA really tightened up the spec for rollbars in the last few
years. If you do decide to compete with this car in any venue, make sure
that you build a roll bar that is up to the min. spec. for the group you
intend to compete with.
In both the above cases, the roll bar/cage is bolted into the car using
the floor and the wheel arches. With a little extra fab work you could
tie the mount points into your frame for a really safe installation.
If you just want to have a small margin of safety for regular street use,
the Moss bar (which I believe is actually an AutoPower unit) is okay as
would be the unit you can get from TRF and probably Vicky Brit etc. Most
of those units that I have seen bolt onto the parcel shelf behind the
driver. That area of the body is not mounted to the frame very well, and
in a heavy shunt, the bar would probably collapse. I personallly would
not use such a setup, but it does give the car a racy look!
In all of the above cases, it is very important that you pad the bar very
well. If you are driving on the street and are involved in an incident,
you absolutely do not want to bang your head on a heavy steel pipe!! If
you are unfortunate enough to actually experience such an event, you will
not be able to spell "head injury".
So, I'd skip the Moss bar and I'd think really hard about how you intend
to use the car.
If you want to go the other route, I have a couple of old bars out in the
garage....
rml
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