Ron Cannella

Thought i would share some photos for eneryone interested in having a roll bar installed without going through waterfall.
Let me know what you think.

oldmansan

Very clean install. I've sure a lot of vert guys will be all over this.

San

NTMD8R

Ron,
That is a FABULOUS install!!!!!!

Please, more pictures on the "details"..... under the floor,
the mounting to the frame or ?, connections,
etc., etc.

Since I am in Canada I doubt if I am going to drive to your area to get it done,
so if I can get enough info/details/pictures, I can probably get it done up here.

Thanks a TON !!!!

Tzzird

Looks amazing. Congratulations on the install! Can you give us more information about this setup? Does it completely work with the top? Did anything have to be removed?

Charley Hoyt

Do the seats go all the way back?

danl72

Cool.

knkali

Doesnt look like the seats go back

TBonez

Killer - too bad its not a Black Vert... but hey, can't have everything

Ron Cannella

Works great with top up or down,Just had to remove seperation from trunk area where rear speakers are mounted so the rear supports could be installed.I will reinstall it when i get some time to lay it out, im sure it will work.

Ron Cannella

I am 5-11 and over 200 lbs have the seat about where i had it before only lose about 1-1/2 inch from the rear bottom of seat. The sides of the seat are very snug but seems to be fine.

johnodrake

Ron, are the door bars removable?

Awesome Car - love the top

Charley Hoyt

It looks great Ron. Is it welded in place or bolted?

Ron Cannella

the door bars swing out and are removable

Ron Cannella

It is bolted and welded. Extra plate is welded to frame then other plates ar bolted through.
Complete roll bar is removable from car at any time.But the plates that are welded to frame stay.

rcmigpilot

Looks good, now the two big questions:

How much???

Will they sell the bar system as a pre-bent kit that can be installed by a local shop?

///DarkSide\\\

To be NHRA legal, doesn't the bar behind the seats have to be straight? In addition, I hope you have approved roll bar padding, even in a minor fender bender on the street you could be seriously injured by your head bashing against the steal bar.

Ron Cannella

NHRA looked at the car while bar was being installed at the shop as he was at the shop certifing a frame on a dragster and said they would only certify for 10.99 due to it being a convertable'And the bar is above my head not behind it.

rcmigpilot

For NHRA purposes roll bars are only good for 11:49 to 10:99, after 10:99 a full cage is required. For all the trouble of that bar set up, you can only get a 1/2 second quicker as opposed to a removable hard top like this one http://www.smoothline.com/corvette_c6.php . Per the owner of my local track, a vert with a hard top on it would be treated as a coupe and would be good to 11:50 with no other modifications needed. For me, the hard top is a better deal than the bar. Of course nonof the is applies to road courses.

Tzzird

Your last sentence is the reason why I completely avoided the path of a hardtop for my convertible. I'd like to run regular road course events with the convertible and I don't think a removable hardtop will serve me well in a roll over.

And don't these run well over 2 grand if you purchase from the company?

(EDIT: just say the price on the link... $2699 and that's probably not including tax, shipping, and whatever extras the company might tack on.)

rcmigpilot

I agree, the hard top is not cheap, but I still haven't seen how much the bar system cost to install. In addition, I think the bar will reduce resale or at least make the car harder to sell. Kind of hard to convince people that the car wasn't raced hard when it has a roll bar. For my needs the hard top will work best. My car is a weekend toy and not a competition first sports car. My main interest is the weekend bracket races at my local drag strip. My road course action will be limited to an occasional run for the once monthly open lap days. Since I wont be competing and the course is completely flat I can't really imagine a scenario where a spin off will end up with the car on it's roof. If it does, end up going over, I'll trust that the engineers at GM new what they were doing and the A pillar will hold up the car. Remember, the C5 and C6 were designed as convertibles and had the roll over protection built into the A pillar. Check out the pictures below. The entire weight of the Benz is supported by the A pillar on this vert.