Roll bar

[yellow dog 62]

Wife thinks she might like a roll bar on our 2020 Iconic silver GT/CS. Any suggestions? Anyone like to share some pictures of theirs?

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[robertwsimpson]

Do you mean a cosmetic one or a functional one?

 

[yellow dog 62]

I'm thinking cosmetic but she's thinking for safety. Can you get one that's both?

 

[robertwsimpson]

It depends on how cool you think the functional ones look. Personally, I think they look better than the cosmetic ones, but that's up to you and your wife. The main problem with the functional ones is that you pretty much lose the back seat. At the very least, your passengers will have a bar in their face, which makes things pretty UNsafe back there.

One thing to remember is that Ford, a company with billions on the line and insanely brilliant engineers and designers, has called the mustang convertible "safe enough to put on public streets en mass" (I'm paraphrasing of course). For me, that's always been good enough.

To get onto a track, most locations are going to want to see rollover protection, which is why I have looked into it.

Basically, here are your options:

something like this:

This will not offer roll over protection, but maybe you like the styling?



or something like this:

Which is functional, but you can see how it would cause some issues for rear seat passengers.

Like I said, I'm more interested in the second one.

 

[ORRadtech]

To be clear, the first one is most often referred to as a "light bar". It's strictly for appearance sake and offers zero, zip, nada in the way of protection. Unless you consider an extra, higher third (4th?) brake light added protection.

 

[yellow dog 62]

Thanks.

 

[I Bleed Ford Blue]

Unless you consider an extra, higher third (4th?) brake light added protection.

They now make it without the light.

For the op, I put one on my 17 vert back in 17 a few months after I got it.

 

[JimC]

A functional roll bar you do lose the back seat. No one should ride in the back seat with a roll bar. Too many things that can injure in an accident.

Think about it, a hard metal bar ready to meet someone's face if they go forward. Hard metal bars at their head as it moves back and forth during the accident slamming into those surfaces.

So while someone could ride in the back seat, no one SHOULD ride back there. It's not like there is much room in back for anyone to ride there in the S550 anyway. Much tighter than my S197 convertible was.

 

[Avispa]

https://www.mustang6g.com/forums/threads/what-is-you-favorite-diving-song.127562/page-5

Interesting that this subject came up. Check post #64. On a road car, you don't need one. I walked away from the car in the pic. The car was a '65. It didn't have any of the safety features we take for granted in new cars. If you want the bar for cosmetic reasons, or you need it for the track, that's another matter. Safety? Nah.

 

[frank s]

Either kind is useful and appreciated if you do parades with riders on the back rim. This Cold War veteran would have seemed much happier with a bar to hang onto.

 

[MKMotorsport]

S197 obviously but this one is the Maximum Motorsports 6 point (has the high mount door bars also/not installed in these pics), and 5 point harnesses. Yes this kills the street-ability. Seat swap coming soon. I wonder when they will offer one for the newer cars?

Function over form?
https://www.maximummotorsports.com/roll_bar_crash_test.aspx

 

[JimC]

You could have one custom made. I did for my 2006 so another S197 (wouldn't fit the S550 due to the changes in the platform). I had swing out door bars on it and could remove those easily for daily driving.

 

[MKMotorsport]

You could have one custom made. I did for my 2006 so another S197 (wouldn't fit the S550 due to the changes in the platform). I had swing out door bars on it and could remove those easily for daily driving.]

Who's kit is that? I like that the main hoop runs outside the rear trim. The MM hoop runs inside the rear trim which can look cleaner, but requires heavy modification of the rear trim pieces to make it all fit especially with the harness mount bar. The MM kit has bolt in door bars that are still NHRA legal, and I leave them out on the street typically.

Another option outside the kits is to have a chassis or fab shop build something custom. Just make sure whatever they build is going to pass tech at whatever track/series you run in.

 

[JimC]

Who's kit is that? I like that the main hoop runs outside the rear trim. The MM hoop runs inside the rear trim which can look cleaner, but requires heavy modification of the rear trim pieces to make it all fit especially with the harness mount bar. The MM kit has bolt in door bars that are still NHRA legal, and I leave them out on the street typically.

Another option outside the kits is to have a chassis or fab shop build something custom. Just make sure whatever they build is going to pass tech at whatever track/series you run in.

It's not a kit. I had a local guy in Michigan build and install it for me. One of the requirements I had was that it not go through the rear trim so that I could unbolt it and remove it if I needed to use the rear seat. And I never had any problems with tech inspection at any track.He did a friend's Mustang first, and that one went through the trim so we looked at some other ways to install without doing that, and modified the rear support bars because the original design didn't look right when I changed the main hoop mounting.

After it was installed I decided I wanted to add the stripe to match my car. That was fun, in my driveway, had the car and interior covered with plastic sheets so that I could paint the white stripe.

Unfortunately he is no longer doing custom work.

 

[MKMotorsport]

It's not a kit. I had a local guy in Michigan build and install it for me. One of the requirements I had was that it not go through the rear trim so that I could unbolt it and remove it if I needed to use the rear seat. And I never had any problems with tech inspection at any track.He did a friend's Mustang first, and that one went through the trim so we looked at some other ways to install without doing that, and modified the rear support bars because the original design didn't look right when I changed the main hoop mounting.

After it was installed I decided I wanted to add the stripe to match my car. That was fun, in my driveway, had the car and interior covered with plastic sheets so that I could paint the white stripe.

Unfortunately he is no longer doing custom work.

Gotcha, Looking back at your original post I saw you called out it was done as a custom- I was distracted by the pretty pictures of it Looks great and a great example of how a shop can work with your requirements and come up with a better result than a one size fits all solution. Too bad he is out of business.

Another bonus of a functional 4 or 6 point is chassis rigidity increase. I know the 550's are probably better in this regard than previous generations but adding something structural will definitely increase the cars handling capability by a large margin (cornering and braking). Obviously you want this if any kind of track performance is your goal.

Just to add to the custom shop thing, don't overlook 4x4 shops that do fabrication work in addition to the typical speed/chassis shop. May not immediately come to mind for Mustang related stuff, but might be worth checking out depending on your local market and area.

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