Hercules Rockefeller

Hey guys,

Although I have reached a point where I find myself having to sell my car, I wanted to take a moment to share with you the awesome cage fabrication Moti Almagor did for me over at Blackbird Fabworx. When I originally decided to cage my car I wasn't sure how far to go, but Moti guided me through the whole process and built a cage for me that absolutely blew me away! How he managed to fit something like this into my car is beyond me, but somehow the steel follows every line and curve, maximizing interior space. If you look closely you will see that he actually inset the cage into the roof panel, which is now bolted directly to the cage. The cage itself is bolted and epoxied to the frame, as required by NASA/SCCA for aluminum framed cars. Of course the best feature of a cage like this is the safety factor, and after driving a car like this on track with a 6-point harness, full support racing seat, HANS and surrounding steel cage, I would never drive a stock car at the track again. Even though I (thankfully) never needed the cage, it actually improved the stiffness of the car remarkably... it's hard to explain exactly, but when you couple a cage like this with other mods (like spherical suspension bearings), you are really able to feel how the shock/wheel movement of the car is totally isolated from any flexing or bending in the frame. In short... it's AWESOME! And here are a few pics of what I'm talking about:

fatbillybob

It is about time you upped your safety game and you went to the best guy in town. Moti's work is very good! Good for you. It will take you no time at all to get your SCCA race license. The Vette fits in any number of classes or you could play with Oli and gang with NASA in the ST classes which are simple power to weight.

mountainbiker2

Very nice! Sometimes I wished I had a Corvette like that. Sticking with stock for now. Thanks for the pictures.

Steve

dvandentop

saw ya were trying to sell on ebay? hope ya find a buyer

smellya

Damn nice looking cage. It is very close to mine. Mine has removable door bars. Mine also still has windows for now. It is a nice feeling when something very stupid happens at speed you feel you can walk away from it.

Hercules Rockefeller

Yes unfortunately it is time for me to sell. Part of me thinks I will regret it, but my current situation just leaves me with little options. I don't know if it's best to try selling through here or on ebay (or somewhere else), but I know it's harder to find the right buyer for a car as extreme as this one.

MUKAK

u selling the caged car pictured? if so how much? my cousin is looking for one

Hercules Rockefeller

Asking $65k with a bunch of accessories (spare wheels, brakes, alignment tools, etc), although most people who've shown interest seem to be looking to buy just the car by itself so maybe I should come up with a price for that too. I also have an E-350 van and custom open trailer which I'm selling, but I'm offering them first to any potential buyer of the car, and if they don't sell with the car I will sell them separately.

BTW if your cousin is interested in other details beyond the cage, the car has a built/forged motor putting down 574 RWHP (on 91 octane CA pump gas), an RPM Transmissions Level VI ZR1 Trans, HD drive shaft w/ solid couplers, Breathless Performance twin oil coolers, ARE Stage 2 dry sump oil system, Katech high volume oil pump, Dewitt's radiator, Brembo GT brakes, SKF wheel bearings, DRM brake proportioning valve, LG coil overs, Pfadt spherical bearings throughout, Pfadt heavy rate sway bars, hardwired AMB transponder and of course the aero mods, seats and harnesses that can be seen in the pictures. The car recently weighed in at 3029 lbs with a 5/8ths full tank (without driver).

phxcobra

two words ... Awe Some!

Moti @ Blackbird Fab

Hey Rob!
Thanks for the link and all the compliments

This car was a really special project, we build fun stuff all the time, but when it came to this car, a lot of things got turned to 11.
Here are a few pics prior and during final assembly, right after we finished painting the cage, things that are otherwise very hard to see, such as the integration of the seat mounts themselves to the cage.
Also, some of the features are easier to understand with explanations.




Blackbird Fabworx C6 Z06 race cage w/ integrated seat mounts.




The entire cage is bolted, sleeved and epoxied to the Aluminum frame using high end aerospace grade Epoxy.






One of the key features of the cage are the huge curved A-pillar gussets which offer much needed support to the long span of the front legs in a similar fashion to FIA bars, but unlike FIA bars they do not take almost any of the door opening, allowing for easier ingress / egress in a hurry (as you'd want to do if the car caught fire).






Paneled door bar for the driver offers additional protection against intrusion as well as big blunt surface to smack your arm on (much nicer than tubes once padded of course).

Continuing in a second post --->

JerryTX

Awesome cage!!! I love the integration to the seat mounts in two locations, great idea!! What do you mean my sleeved? Which window net upper bar is that? And finally, is the A Pillar gusset covering a second downbar on the inside radius or is it simply a curved gusset of aluminum panel that is hollow inside (I hope that question made sense)?

Moti @ Blackbird Fab

Thanks!

In some of the locations, we opted to sleeve the area that the bolt is going through to prevent unnecessary deformation from tightening the bolts where the two sides are not squared to each other (because of the shape of the frame).
The sleeves are basically cut to the exact length and shape they need to be to put the right amount of force on the plates.

The window net hardware kit that we like using is the Joe's racing kit which uses a spring loaded upper rod and is beautifully finished with red anodizing on the handle and powder coated rods.
Costs a few bucks more than your usual kit but in a race car build project it's a drop in the ocean.

The curved gussets are some of the most labor intensive pieces in the cage.
They are made out of two mirrored parts of sheet metal (Steel, note they are welded to the cage) that are then welded together along the curve in the center to form that one big part.
After that, they have to be accurately trimmed to fit into the area they are going to be welded to and allow all the tubes in the way to be nested in and fully welded.

Not sure why the forum software / formatting does not allow me to attach more images, there are a bunch of other bit of fabrication in this car that I'd be happy to show.
Help, anyone?

3X2

It looks to me that the main hoop is welded to plates. Do the main hoop bars go through those plates and are welded to the frame rail?

trackboss

How do you get the compound curve on the "taco" style gussets? I've seen photos, but never in person. BMW was most famous for those when they were selling the caged bodies in white, but I never got to see one up close or ask how they were done.

Moti @ Blackbird Fab

3X2 - the MH is welded to the plates and does not extend beyond them.
The plates are generously sized and bolt to the chassis on multiple planes (note vertical sections bolted and epoxied on the outsides).
As with everything in life, it's all about the compromises.
I felt that going down through the bulkhead creates compromises I did not want to make in other aspects of the design, and seeing that the base of the MH spreads vertical loads to 2 additional cage members (lower door bar and inner seat mount brace) the MH is well supported where it's at.

Trackboss - I tried to describe the process in the previous post.
Unlike a normal taco shell gusset that's bent on one axis, the curved gussets cannot be made from a single piece of sheet metal.
The two halves of the curved gusset are formed in separate on a buck and then stitched together into one piece.
The process is far more time consuming, a pair of similarly sized normal taco shells take a few hours to fabricate while a pair of these takes about 2.5 days.

The cost is obviously much higher as a result, but seeing how the driver fits in the car and his path in and out raised my concerns for Rob's well being if we used a more typical FIA bar setup (or a straight gusset).
There was simply no way for him to make a quick exit if the car was on fire, an FIA bar would have eaten way too much from the door opening.

BMW Motorsports first did this with their E46 cages which had a number of unusual features (no main hoop!).
With the E46 door opening being so much taller, they were able to lengthen the gussets all the way to the midway point between the windshield header and the B pillar which is not really an option in a C6 body, again, due to emergency exit concerns.
http://www.bohp.net/pict2/ment2g3708.jpg

Any input on why I can't attach any additional images?

Hercules Rockefeller

I felt that the curved gussets made a huge difference for ingress/egress and were well worth the additional cost. A standard FIA bar would have been way too obtrusive and would have probably contacted my left arm in certain driving situations, let alone the difficulty it would have introduced when exiting the car. For me the priority in this cage was maximizing space for the occupants, which maximizes comfort AND safety as it gives the driver the greatest amount of "cushion space" possible. We could have kept the windows but that would have necessitated bringing the side bars way closer the the driver, which would have greatly decreased the safety factor and compromised the primary reason for building the cage in the first place. Besides... who wants windows on a dedicated track car? They add weight, decrease safety, and I almost missed a track event once when the driver's side window refused to roll down!