History Cool Roll Bars

The hoop roll bars are indeed cool, however many I’ve seen are below the top of the drivers head. Not sure I’d want to test one. That is one gorgeous Corvette.
Dan

 

Yep I like my eggs sunny side up and my cars rubber side down although I think the two front tires up for a little while would be cool.
Dan

 

In the late 1950s,I thought it would be cool/racy looking to add a roll bar,so did. It can be seen in this pic of first point that I got my 28A running to test around the block. Tryed to work bugs out!!
Took a lot of work to make an put the rollbar in. The rollbar turned out to be a bug,after I banged my head on it,too many times,doing burn-outs. I removed it. The extra room,the missing rollbar let the rear of my bench seat fall back,make better driving comfort anyway. As a teen,that was not the first idea that failed to work nas planned at first.

 

It appears as though mine was inadvertently patterned after McGee's -

 

Basket handles.

 

Lanny did a great job!

 

I think I would rather take my chances on a well built well engineered vintage roll bar that is correctly welded and gusseted….




Over these new crazy left side offset ultra light weight on gusset roll bar/cages of today.



The drivers of both cars walked away unhurt!

 

Do Tell. If You please

 

No doubt Sam Conrad had a hand in Scritch’s roll bar.

 

Sweet car, I like the roll bar, doesn’t look like the driver will bang his head while driving and should afford some protection in a roll over. And it looks good.
Dan

 

Hello,

All through growing up with hot rods, we were always told during our drag racing days that a roll bar was a necessity. For the streets, everyone laughed. So, no one, including the top racers of the day in Bixby Knolls had a street car with a roll bar of any kind. but, for their compe***ion cars, a roll bar was a necessity.

The objective was in a full upside down crash, a “triangle action” was necessary to prevent injury. If a Corvette flips over, it lands on the rollbar and the front fender, creating a triangle to protect the driver. In a Corvette, the fibergl*** is relatively useless and would crush, negating the triangle of safety. But, the head of the driver is still protected, somewhat, from a top down crush.

Hopefully, we will never see a open roadster upside down. But, the same idea of a roll bar above the head of the driver would be protected, if it flips over. With the triangle using the radiator. In theory, it should work. But, the radiator would probably crush and the front of the cowl would have to be the triangle point of support, making the safety area smaller.

Jnaki

In looking back, our Willys did not have an interior roll bar, but it was measured and planned as part of our next step to finish it for the Nationals in September. (including Hilborn Injectors, larger Halibrands and M&H slicks, as well as a full upholstery and custom paint.)

So, for all of our fast street hot rod sedans and coupes, no one had a roll bar as it was inconvenient to get in and out daily. Even those with a removable cross door seating access bars were illegal at the time. YRMV

Note:

I could see why my wife did not want to ride in that cool T-Bucket, even if it was a short ride. Talk about no protection from any part of the build !!! Yikes

But, when I rode in Jack Stewart’s Red 1932 open roadster, all thoughts of a roll over were the last thing on my mind and it was all open road pleasure. No roll bar, just a well built 32 roadster cruising down the road… YES…

 

Sometimes being strip legal meant making esthetic compromises. I would have liked the look of mine if it had been lower, but rules-is-rules. I'm very tall.