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Continuing the trend of adding more products and product lines we've added Autopower to our line card for you hardcore racers looking to be a bit safer.
They offer a variety of different roll bars and a weld in cage option for the 3S. Much more affordable than getting a custom one made and they're simple enough to install. I'll have one coming for my car soon and will do a write-up on it then. If you have any questions let me know...
Autopower @ Maximal Performance
That is neat, I would probably at some point be interested in one like this:
AutoPower Street Roll Bar - 3000GT Stealth - Maximal Performance
It is important to me the street aspect isn't ruined, but some additional protection would make me feel better.
Yeah, the street-sport actually has a removable harness bar which keeps the back seat in use but still gives you the harness bar.
Would love to see some installed pictures, I know that was holding back a lot of potential buyers when another vendor started offering them
Will have some as soon as I get mine. I'm trying to get some local guys to pick them up to save on shipping but I'm pulling the trigger on one next week.
You would just add this after me dropping 2k+ on parts with you :) I might need the street sport one though. I am checking with my local raceways to see what type I would need (how many points).
Sounds good, let me know. :)
Back seat in use? I suppose if you live with a couple midgets maybe..Quote:
Originally Posted by Maximal
Mine is on order so I should have a write-up in a couple of weeks.
Well, I spent the last 2 weekends working on this (which should tell you something). I'm glad you guys waited.
First off the good. This thing is beefy. It's overkill thickness DOM. I had a chassis builder look at it (more on that later) and they said it's more than good enough for the weight of our cars. The main hoop fit pretty well along the sides and roof line....not too close but yet not too much gap.
First issue I had was when unwrapping it. I think it was a combination of poor prep and wrapping it with shipping plastic while wet because a ton of paint came off the main hoop. The harness and cross bar were fine though so who knows. Either way, it had some shipping scratches on it (which they advertise as normal) anyways so to be perfect it would need to be painted quick.
Like I said the main hoop fit fine. It was clear it was designed to mount through the rear speaker openings which would mean I would lose them. No big deal because racecar and I wouldn't have to cut up the factory trim pieces. Pulled off the trim back and and the rear support bar plates were flat and they wanted you to mount it to the curved wheel well. Whatever, I can make it work still. Problem is, when you put both ends on and got one in place there was a decent gap at every mounting point at every bolt hole. Here's a pic of the "good" side.
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-5...721_170927.jpg
Still, I can work with this. I can fab up some spacers and make it work. Put the trim on loosely and tried to fit everything. Even though they have the huge gap of the rear speakers to hit they were entering too low to the bottom to be able to get everything together without hacking some trim.
At that point I could have made it work still but add everything up, and knowing a guy who has a chassis shop, I decided to stop and take it to him. During the process I realized that it wouldn't be too hard to just use the perch where the rear seat belts mount. It's not super strong there but the sheet metal is doubled up and there are a ton of welds in it to make it work. Talked with to my chassis guy about it and he agreed, it's more than strong enough and would make for a cleaner install. Left it with him for the week and picked it up Friday, he also sandblasted the cage and painted it. Looked awesome.
It was a bit tricky getting the holes drilled on the seat belt perch with the lower clearance but other than that it was pretty straight forward. Pics of it installed along with my new Corbeaus...
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-1...728_173639.jpg
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-h...728_173623.jpg
I'm more than happy with it now but wish they would have just made it this way to begin with. From what I understand, most of their cages lose the rear speakers after doing some research which is fine since I'm sure most people putting in roll bars/cages don't mind it and it's probably a bit stronger.
At this point I still think there are some value in this cage for the main hoop and the fact, with some work, you can get it to work the way it comes. If you're going full race trim and not using the rear trim it'd probably be pretty easy to get it in there. What's really disappointing is they never replied to an email I sent bringing up my concerns. I'm not sure if I'll keep them on the site with the disclaimer that they take some work to make fit or just pull them. Guess I'll hear what you guys have to say...
The hoop parts looks pretty good. Did your shop have to custom make the bar that goes to the rear seat belt perch, or were you able to re-use the piece that went to the speakers? Do you know if this would fit in a car w/ a pop-up sunroof? Also, did you bolt it down, or weld it? Thanks,
They reused some parts but everything in that rear section was custom. I don't think having a sunroof would be a problem but I could measure the height from the floor if you were worried. I just bolted it in. I was originally planning on welding but realized that bolting it in would be just as strong.Quote:
Originally Posted by stealthII