LocostUSA.com

The upper side rail scares me because it's so close to the driver's head. Even a minor side-impact would be like getting hit with a steel baseball bat. The car immediately above is slighly better because the seats contain their own helmet containment. Either way it sure argues for a HANS device...

HANS shine in front impact, for side and diagonal hits there are much better options (ISAAC)

I definitely wouldn't want a tube that close to my head unless I was wearing a helmet in a full containment seat, either way.

I worry about this in the frame I'm working on. Any thoughts on that roll bar padding? The real stuff made for that, not pipe insulation.

I'll have to do the FEA on it without the high tubes. Perhaps they should not be included on a street build, or be made removable.

Not having the upper tubes is another risk though. It's not hard to think of accidents that you would want them. I haven't been able to a deign a good tall front hoop yet, I'll have to try some more...

How about moving those side diagonal tubes high enough to miss the driver's head pivoting to the side?

I was concerned about bumper intrusion from a classic T-bone side impact. When I built my full-size mockup I found that the rear wheel provides a substantial amount of protection, depending on its lateral locating links.

Hitting a pole or a tree... I've seen several cars ripped completely in half when they hit a bridge abutment or light standard sideways. I bought one of them, a late-model Camaro that was delivered in two pieces after hitting a light standard that has claimed at least one other victory the same way, a Mustang, oddly enough. The Camaro's NHTSA-approved side impact protection was a piece of thin muffler pipe in the plastic door, which did absolutely nothing, as you'd expect.

I view a Seven as a four-wheeled motorcycle. There's only a limited amount of protection from the weather, crazies, or stationary objects. And as several people have pointed out, the cage structure itself can become a problem. And even if you solve that, there's nothing stopping something pointy from coming through the spaces between the tubes.

In the end you pay you money and take your chances. The street is a wild and wooly place compared to the safety of a racetrack.

It bewilders me why Locost builders don't make some real nice looking dual side intrusion bars similar to this, nice tube and rounded bends of course, even a nice aluminium bolt on ...

Kinda like a Sprint cars Nerf bars?

Then again ...... sometimes ya just need luck ....... http://www.autoblog.com/2012/01/16/watc ... t-130-mph/

It's hard to imagine that little bar actually helping instead of just digging into the sand or dirt.

I like how in the video he says "that's odd the car suddenly oversteered then got better." A moment later it's "suddenly without warning". What did he think was happening 10 seconds earlier?

Not even in a race, not on the street, and certainly not on a track day, would I carry on after a "that's odd". I'd be off the throttle and pulling over before you can say, "I've seen enough hentai to know where this is going." You can pretty much guarantee an unexplained oddity in suspension is going to get odder.

Note the after-crash pics at the end. Our Locosts have more side protection than those Cobras.

Yeah, most Cobra's and their replicants are just the two main rails and everything else is just outriggered off of those two rails.

Tom

Typical American truck/SUV bumpers are higher than your top bar; they'd just go over the side and hit your shoulder. Your protection, if any, comes from the rear wheel getting in the way of the bumper.

Mine are similar, but they're light and spaceframed because I feel for optimum protection in a book/McSorley/etc frame, it's important they not be more rigid than the diagonal tube at the side of the driver. A nice stiff side intrusion bar from materials like roll bars and rear braces (1-3/8" ERW 14 gauge tubing is what I used on my rollbar and braces) would punch right into the driver's rib cage in a side impact; you're better off with none, and hoping the other car hits your wheel.

Then why not run a brace up from the side intrusion bar to the upper seatback bar...

I was getting to that. Because a brace won't fit, the rear wheel will hit it in jounce. I'm strongly considering moving the rear wheels back 2" on my next Locost, specifically so I can triangulate the side intrusion structure.

My thought is that this is the place for an aluminum structure so that it deforms and absorbs impact before the frame deforms.

And just like a car bumper styrofoam blocks inside the structure.

Yuck!