manga_blue wrote:Trackphotos wrote:Rollovers are very uncommon in MX5s in road accidents, much more likely on a race track.
I disagree with you there. Road rollovers are pretty common with MX5s. Try a google image search for something like "miata rolled over" and you'll find dozens of them, with some being pretty nasty. I think they roll more easily on the road than on the track. It's all to do with what's on the side of a road that you don't get on a track. On a road they tend to drift off and get tripped by something like a small bank or a culvert or a gutter or a rock. On a track they just mostly slide through dirt and grass and stuff like that until maybe they slam a wall.
Rollbars also help prevent 4WDs from riding up the back or side of the car into the cabin. A few of our forum members have had their lives saved by that.
Granted it's US-based, but the NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) says otherwise. Saying road rollovers are "pretty common" is complete crap. In single-vehicle accidents, Miatas only have a 7% chance of rolling, they are rated among the lowest risk, alongside S2000s, RX8s and Z4s. Of course you'll find photos of rolled ones, that's the magic of the internet, and of searching for crash photos of a car that has a million units. That tells you absolutely nothing. As for rolling more easily on the road than on the track, that's very, very unlikely. On the road you are doing road speeds. On the track you are doing track speeds. If you leave the road you might hit a ditch. If you run wide on a ripple strip, you WILL hit a ditch, and it takes a much smaller one to roll you over if you're going a lot faster. Not to mention the increased likelihood of wheel-to-wheel contact with track traffic, and the fact that ripple strips will get you airborne if you go over them sideways, digging your leading 2 wheels into the ground.
The only road situation in which an MX5 rollover could be considered likely would be coming off a mountain road, where the rollover risk would be massive regardless of what car you were in. The MX5s centre of gravity is so low that it takes an incredible amount of energy to tip it over, unless it's got a huge amount of leverage from digging in somewhere. The faster you're going when it digs in, the shallower the angle it can hit at and still roll.
I didn't say that a rollbar can't save you on the road. I said that in most accidents, it can make it worse for you. You have an extremely low risk of rolling an mx5 on the road, so the safety you gain in that very unlikely situation, is traded for increased chance of massive head injury in every other crash you might be involved in. That's why I suggested a bucket seat with a tall back.
