Roll cages

Have you checked out insurance for the car with a cage? I spoke to a bloke who built up a mk2 track car, and he trailered it everywhere because they're so hard to insure for road use with a cage.

Read the dave walker article on carbs...

Carbs too big gives low speed carb probs at large throttle openings, and without any real gains at the wot max revs end. Bit like fitting a 4 inch end can does nothing useful!

Best to try people like Adrian Flux and Competition Car Insurance if you cant get it with normal companies. I know plenty of people who use them with cages. But you will of course have to pay a premium!

You're quite unlikely to roll a car on a track day, at least I would think you are. Is it really worth it? You're just adding weight and losing performance.

It's REMUS you're talking about here.

Depends how much you value your head.

I've not rolled a MK2 Golf, so I can't say.

As much as that statement makes me grind my teeth, it is true. I have no real experience of track days... let alone relatively heavily tuned track day cars. Although I am going to book a few lessons before I attend a track day and learn as much as I can from a professional.

Yep exactly, I would rather have bruises, cuts...etc than broken bones or worse.

I figured at my age it would be more cost effective to have track day insurance, which varies wildly depending on location.

Can you give me a link, since most of the google stuff leads to kit car stuff that isn't really relevant :-/

I think you meant to say: I've not rolled a MK2 Golf YET, so I can't say.

:)

At the end of the day its just a Golf and you wont be doing any competitive driving (or will you?), so I wouldnt bother with the expense. You're gonna spend loads of money tarting it up and after 6 months you'll want something more powerful and you'll never get that money back. If I were you I'd make sure its roadworthy, make sure the engine is strong, maybe fiddle with the suspension and go to a few trackdays and see what its like. From what I've heard if you do drive like a tit you'll get black flagged anyway.

I've rolled a 309 and hit a tree at about 40mph in a 205, neither of which are renowned for their strength and I walked away from both relatively uninjured. Of course, a cage would give you that extra piece of mind - a mate of mine got t-boned in a mk1 Fiesta by a Rover 800 and it wouldnt have been too pretty if he didnt have a cage, but personally I'd save the money to start with and see how it goes. I mean, you're off to uni soon arent you? You'll be out on the beer every night for the first few weeks, save the money for that and have a blast, make some new mates etc etc.

As you said " It's REMUS you're talking about here." ;)

Might knock some sense into me!

:P

Doing a quick search for him takes me back to a thread I took part in back in

Oh I don't drive like a tit, I have no points on my license now and I have never had any! It's just like I say, I lack experience in a fast car. I won't be able to afford to buy anything with any real power for probably...

Yeah my dad was going on about that last night, but I have about £1.5k of my own cash (by the time I go I will proberbly have around £1k left) , two cards with £3k limits on them and a student loan/bank account and a bar job in Newcastle lined up for the end of September.

Thinking about it, you are right Carl. I can afford to take my time with the mk2 since it is being built purely for pleasure.

I would be quite tempted by the 1/2 cage if you can get it for a good price, is it weld in or bolt in?

Not entirely sure i'll go host a pic for you now, from what I remember it is bolt in but I can just weld it in anyway :)

It does look bolted in tbh.

Oh yeah, did you find anything on that 45 vs 48mm carb David Walker article search you embarked upon?

If I were going to be that silly again, I'd want a rollcage, wraparound seats, HANS and doorbars. The fact that any decent sized tree will kill you if you hit it side on bothers me. That and seeing a bloke in a new Audi A4 with a much stronger shell and more airbags than my car get comprehensively mangled first hand.

Bolt in cages sound a bit odd to me. Do they bolt onto beefy bits of chassis / box section, or do you weld in reinforcement plates to bolt them to?