MX5 Brown Davis roll bar legality [VIC]

[JESTER]

Hi all,

I have a 93 NA6 with a brown davis roll bar fitted to the car. I bought the car with the bar already fitted and easily obtained a RWC then for the last 18 months or so I've dríven the car without issue (have been pulled over around 4 times since owning the car... Most likely because I'm a P plater). Around a week ago I was pulled over by a member of our local highway patrol for a "random" breathe test and got a minor defect for not having any padding on my roll bar. No other highway officer has even mentioned the fact that my bar was not padded.

Note before he gave me the defect for the bar he thoroughly checked out my car and couldn't find anything else wrong with it (checked tyres, lights, ride height, working horn on my aftermarket steering wheel etc). He didn't give me a fine or anything so I wasn't going to argue, plus you never win arguing with police and 9 times out of ten you'll end up worse off for it so I didn't think it was worth it.

I've seen countless NA's and NB's in Victoria that have BD roll bars and yet I've never seen one with padding, but according to the vicroads site any section of a rollbar/cage 15cm's from either the drivers or passengers head must be padded? There is a thread on here already from a few years ago where a member suffered the same fate as me, padded his bar, went to vicroads to clear the defect and the inspector laughed at the padding saying he had never heard of padding being a requirement for roll bars. Link is below.
http://mx5cartalk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=48605

Basically i'm seeking any clarification from any of you victorian guys who have brown davis roll bars who may know a thing or two about the legalities surrounding roll bars. I've already padded my bar to clear the defect on Monday, but the issue with padding a brown davis roll bar is it makes it very difficult to lock the soft top in place and as you can see in the bellow photo, there is absolutely no chance of getting my hard top back on the car with the 2" of padding the vicroads site recommends. Oh, and it also looks awful, I know.


I'm off to vicroads tomorrow to get the defect removed and will certainly ask the inspector lots of questions, just wondering if there is anybody here knows a definitive answer to whether or not brown davis roll bars require padding on na mx5s.

Cheers.

[Mr Morlock]

An issue is how far away is your head from the roll bar. If its close and you get rear ended a roll bar striking your head is very bad-if you are tall and the seat is well back and your noggin is close I reckon its better to remove it. You seem to have answered your own question- if Vicroads site says it needs to be padded then thats what you need to do. If you take it off later you might get defected again but other people not doing the right thing is not the test of legality. People on this site often do things to cars which are not legal and many drivers have multiple faults in cars but if you get pulled up and fined etc then its a fair cop.

[tbro]

If its close and you get rear ended a roll bar striking your head is very bad-if you are tall and the seat is well back and your noggin is close I reckon its better to remove it.

Me!!!!!!!personally I think that removing your noggin is a bit over the top, even for you Mr M.

Terry

[hks_kansei]

Th officer was correct, rollbars need to be padded.

I read the appropriate legislation when I installed my bar years ago and there was a line in there about padding.
In saying that, the Rollbar rules may have changed in the time since then.

And you are correct, most people don't put on padding, they just accept that thye may get a defect for it. (granted, most aren;t P Platers though)

As for the padding fitting, I was able to fit it under the hardtop adn softtop by cutting the padding into thirds and cable tieing it to the forward facing sections of the rollbar (ie: where my body could hit)

[JESTER]

Ah cool, yeah as I writing it out I did kind of answer my own question in the process. I just gaffatapped the padding down for now as it's easy to remove and I knew I wouldn't be happy with the end result straight away. Zipties in the area where i'm having clearance issues might be an idea. The foam is super thick too, once the minor defect is removed I might rip it off and shave off a few mm from the inside in an attempt to gain more clearance for the hardtop as I much prefer it over the soft top in winter.

I asked the officer about padding even though my seat is usually way forward from the bar but he said it still needs to be padded as if I have a passenger who needs the passenger seat back it's obviously going to be an issue. Makes sense, thanks all. I think the post I found on here from 2011 was from before the law surrounding roll bars and cages was adjusted.

Still my mind boggles as to how I got a RWC with a non padded bar. I guess the workshop didn't care too much about it.

[MLR]

I have only ever used Zip ties on padding, tape looks like arse, I also believe that CAMS have changed the type of padding you need, shouldn't be a problem if you are not tracking your car, maybe?????, and if you are it depends on your class/level and the scruit on the day.....what do the Vic roads regs say about the padding standard.

The new FIA SFI stuff is a hard rubber jobbie, you can get a softer cover though.

http://docs.cams.com.au/Manual/GeneralR ... 2014-1.pdf

I have only ever used the high density foam, which is fine for club level super sprints, and will be getting some soon for my new MX5 Plus bar.

http://www.revolutionracegear.com.au/in ... PCID=18358

The proper foam padding has a offset hole which should make fitting a hard top no problem.

Don't pull the cable ties to tight when installing, it will look like arse if you do.

[MLR]

EDIT: After reading the CAMS 2014 regs (read better that is, LOL) it seems I need at least SFI spec 45.1 as even though the car is road rego'ed and does not require a cage/roll bar for super sprints, but, as one is fitted it then must comply to the regs.

This new stuff is pricey, but then so is neurosurgery.

[hks_kansei]

...what do the Vic roads regs say about the padding standard.

The old standard said:

"A very firm material 15 to 20mm thick is required - soft foams are not acceptable"

It mentions similar to the material sunvisors are made of.

Old standard here.
http://www.vicroads.vic.gov.au/NR/rdonl ... rseded.pdf

Bear in mind, the above has been superceded by a new standard, which I'm looking for at the moment.

[hks_kansei]

Current rules:
http://www.vicroads.vic.gov.au/NR/rdonl ... hicles.pdf

Section 9.5

Basically, all cages/bars now need an engineer to sign them off.

Not sure if the changes are retrospective though (ie: my car complied with the prior rules, should I be changing it to comply with the new ones)

[JESTER]

My padding was offset but still having clearance issues with the hard top. The only reason I used tape over zip ties was because the only padding I could get at short notice was bright yellow . Will see what vicroads say tomorrow and will report back with my findings.

[minipete]

Maybe something like this is the answer.

http://www.hmsmotorsport.com/store/safe ... ar-padding

You could glue it to the front of the bar where your head would hit it in an accident. Trimmed correctly it wouldn't be visible from behind.

Pete