I did not know who Andre Beadle was (also known as 1Stockf30). I’d never heard of the name or handle before. He died last month in New York while street racing his M240i, a car which had well over 1,000 horsepower and running in the 8s in the quarter mile. Andre wore no seat belt and had no roll cage installed. His death is unfortunate. But this article isn’t about Andre.
I saw a lot of responses on social media with false information about roll cages. Some said it wouldn’t have made a difference. Others felt could have saved him. To find out, I asked Tyler Pappas from TySpeed. Tyler builds race cars. Tyler knows his stuff.
How modern cars protect you
If you were to take a car from say, the 1960s, you might think you’d be safe because it’s gigantic and weighs as much as a hippopotamus after Christmas dinner. But we know that’s not true.
All modern cars have what’s known as crumple zones. These are areas of the car meant to crumple, fold, and deflect impact energy away from your precious flesh. They have saved countless lives. But they are designed to protect only at road-going speeds. Once into triple digits, you need more protection than a stock frame can offer.
Can a roll cage protect you in your street car?
When we add a roll cage, we stiffen a car significantly. From Tyler:
“When we build competition cages, while the rules don’t always require it, we often add forward provisions which can include things like : Lower foot and crush protection from the A-pillar bar to the firewall, and in some cases, tubes can be run from the A-pillar bar through to the shock towers along with gusseting which would also help in a high speed frontal collision. Typically, a cage is built to a rule set, and to it’s intended use case.”
But it’s called a roll cage – isn’t it just for rollover protection?
“I’ve generally found cages to be protection from a roll over, and side impact (Think “t-bone”) or side to side contact in a race. We generally install things called “NASCAR bars” which are when the door bars extend out into the door frame area. The doors must be gutted for this.”
An 8-second quarter-mile car is fast, but even stock cars from the factory are getting into the low 10s now. Should we all just have 5-point harnesses installed?
Generally, the additional 4, 5 and 6-point harnesses are safer, but they are NOT designed to be installed on a car with stock seats and no roll cage. There are very specific mounting points and angles to keep in mind that can only be accomplished with the installation of a race seat and cage. I’ve seen some half-assed installs of safety equipment before.
The install and fit of your safety equipment is of paramount importance.
As a rule of thumb, we tend to use grade 10.9 or 12.9 hardware on the seat bolt installs. To prevent deformation in high-speed crashes, seat belt mountings get reinforced and welded with oversized washers.
Of course, all of this does not matter if you were not properly strapped in or wearing the appropriate safety equipment such as a HANS device, which I’d highly recommend to all racers participating in higher speed activities on track where speeds exceed 100 MPH, or wheel to wheel collisions can occur.
You need everything working together for your race car to be safe
As Tyler points out, all these separate systems work together to ensure you’re safe. A HANS device is worn by everyone from local grassroots even drivers to Lewis Hamilton, so don’t worry about looking cool.
Speed is becoming cheaper to achieve than ever before – you can buy cars from the factory that could in theory use all of these systems in place already. And in the aftermarket, 700-plus horsepower is easily achievable. Taking this kind of power for granted is common.
Ultimately, I’m not sure anything could have prevented an accident like the one Andre had, but a roll cage and harness might have made a difference. So add them to your mod budget. It could save your life, or the life of someone you love in the car with you.
Thanks to Tyler for answering my questions!
