StreetSpeed

Sirs,

Now that I have a truck and trailer, I want to make a progressive move into making my C5Z into a full race car. However I would like to save the stuff that makes it not street legal as the last thing I do (not even sure exactly what those are). I'd like to have the option to bed brakes and drive the car on the street as an emergency for now. I plan to start TTing next year and perhaps racing the following year. However first thing I'd like to do during this season is get rid of the airbags and add a removable wheel. Does removing the airbags automatically make the car not legal? During this off season I would like to extend my welded in rear cage into a full roll cage. Not sure if that's even possible if you're not starting from scratch, but assuming it is possible is it legal to drive a car with a full cage on the street? Yes I know it's a very unsafe and dangerous thing to do but that's not my question. Any insight would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

AzMotorhead

Kind of depends on what state you live in but to be street legal here in Az.
You need Headlights, Brake & taillight(s) Horn, tires with at least 4/32 tread. Safety harness(seatbelt for each occupant). Any device approved for shielding eyes from debris. or a Windshield. Thats about it.

A full cage not being safe for the road?? I think your confused there.
Look at a Ariel Atom that's a legal roadworthy car & its all tube construction.

StreetSpeed

Thanks for the reply. Lots of folks say it's unsafe to have a full cage on the street unless you're wearing all safety gear and a HANS, idea being that if you get into an accident without your gear on your liable to flail around the car and bounce off all the steel tubing that surrounds you. I myself am not overly concerned, but some people freak out about that stuff. Again I plan to drive the car on the street to bed the brakes and get to and from the track should my truck or some other means of transport be not available.

brkntrxn

I agree. Every time I hear someone say something to that affect, I ask them to look up to the right the next time they are in a convertible. I have owned multiple convertibles and EVERY SINGLE one has the metal frame of the top less than two inches from my head.

froggy47

If as you say you are concerned with legality, I am pretty sure that disabling or removing an airbag, cat, seatbelt, etc that were originally installed by a manufacturer per federal safety or clean air statutes all make the car "illegal" FWIW.

naschmitz

Rear brakes kits with no parking brake and you are done in many states.

c4cruiser

OEM seatbelts are a requirement in all 50 states. 5 and 6 point harnesses are not DOT-approved and most all states consider them to not be legal for street use.

Also depending on the state, there could be noise limits in dB so you may have to be careful with the exhaust system; shift early and try not to accelerate even at a moderate rate if you have loud exhaust.

As far as airbags, it might be against federal law for a shop to remove or disable airbags. But I'm not sure if they have to be replaced after a deployment. Again it depends on your state's laws. Airbags can be terribly expensive even for just one. If nothing else, pull the fuse or remove the wiring harness connector to the sensors.

Same with removing a working catalytic converter; if a shop gets caught, they can face a 5-figure fine from the feds. Doing it yourself isn't a problem.

Keeping a registration current can be an issue if you have to go thru some sort of safety inspection or a smog test. Fail there and no tags until the "problem" is fixed.

RDnomorecobra

in PA you can remove the airbag and pass inspection. I think if you were in an accident howver, and asked your insurance co. to pay for your medical bills, they may be real curious as to how the airbag got deleted and that cool D shaped MOMO wheel got in there.

RedLS1GTO

In Virginia, I once got a ticket in my 02Z for being too low (lowered on stock bolts) and too loud (stock exhaust). In Ohio, my completely gutted '96 track car with 6 points, no-cat exhaust that would wake the dead, and slicks got licensed.

As stated... it depends completely on the state. Some limit you to basically keeping it stock, some are WAY more open. Asking on a broad scope isn't going to get you a good answer.

95jersey

Insurance will be a major issue, they may deny any claim. I am one of those who believes a full cage on the street can be deadly if you are not wearing your helmet. Let's say you get into an accident and you or you passenger get's throw around the car and your head slams into the roll cage. This happened to someone in PA who was doing EXACTLY what you want to do, basically he took his race car for a test drive and just happened to get into an accident, slammed his head into the roll cage and died from severe brain hemorrhage.

So the next argument will be...but I will have my 5/6 point harness on to hold me in place....ok then your head essentially becomes a bobble head and will rip right off your spine at even some of the slowest speeds. It is my opinion that if you use a 5/6 point harness a HANS is mandatory, which means you need to wear a helmet on the street.

If you are just doing TT, you don't need a roll cage, stay with what you have.

2MCHPWR

if you are "just" TT'ing, you can still wreck very hard, so I would get a cage if you can afford one. With the groups we run with, some TT lap times are on par or faster than the race groups.

RedLS1GTO

The safety equipment (or lack thereof) in HPDE/TT cars that I see is absolutely amazing to me. I honestly can't believe that there are not more serious injuries or deaths.

2MCHPWR

i saw a crazy wreck in c6z06 2 weeks ago at NJMP. older gentleman in HPDE. I have the video around and its scarey. Car is just about totalled; the rear glass blew out from the impact. They are thinking it was a master cylinder failure.

ScaryFast

This may be true, but there a NHTSA requirement called the HIC (Head impact criterion) that all surfaces within a certain distance of the driver's head must pass. Everything in the passenger compartment on a modern car is tested to provide some sort of force reduction to the head in a collision. That hard plastic trim panel is gonna hurt a LOT when your head hits it, but it will sufficiently reduce the impact to a safe level to hopefully prevent "real" damage.

http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/810739.PDF

Your steel roll cage is not tested to HIC critera. The energy absobing foam that we cover our cages with is tested to a helmet impact, not a head.

It's a bad idea to drive a car with a cage not wearing a helmet.

Bad Karma

There are harnesses that are DOT approved; Shroth for example. Now your state may have something excluding them, but if you just need the DOT rating, you can buy equipment to fit the bill.

Lawdogg

Assume the risk or not, it is your call. I won't tell you to wear a helmet on a motorcycle, or on a bicycle, or wear a Hans in a track car.

travisnd

Depends on your goals... if you're just out there going the same pace you did in DE and getting lap times I guess you're "OK". But if you're out there actually competing a cage is something you should consider. I'd never TT a car as fast as a Corvette w/o a cage and my neck brace.

drivinhard

While I'm not advocating running around in a caged car on the street, I can't see how hitting 1" of SFI high density roll bar padding is going to be any worse than hitting 1/4" of headliner or 1/16" of plastic B pillar trim

drivinhard

I think Dez White takes the cake, 1:26 at RA, no cage. And yeah I've told him he's

travisnd

Very true... considering the car is already gutted and I'm sure he can scrounge up a few grand