The Mustang Forum for Track & Racing Enthusiasts

Taking your Mustang to an open track/HPDE event for the first time? Do you race competitively? This forum is for you! Log in to remove most ads.

  • Welcome to the Ford Mustang forum built for owners of the Mustang GT350, BOSS 302, GT500, and all other S550, S197, SN95, Fox Body and older Mustangs set up for open track days, road racing, and/or autocross. Join our forum, interact with others, share your build, and help us strengthen this community!

Autopower roll bar - any experiences?

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

dmichaels said:
Mustangs Unlimited, which is about 10 minutes down the road from me, offers this roll cage that appears to bolt in and is quite a bit lower in cost than other roll bars I've seen available for the Mustangs. Interested if anyone has any experiences with this?

Yes that is what I installed with no problems. You must do a little plastic trimming. Nice winter project. I ordered the unpainted unit and painted it Race red. Best

http://www.mustangsunlimited.com/itemdy01.asp?T1=70262RB+01&catkey=LLMUSTANG&srccode=MUSMVWEB
 
1,281
3
Tulsa, OK
Personally, I'm not a huge fan of autopower bars. It seems to me like the backing plates are not large enough to keep the bars from puncturing the floor pan in a rollover situation. Here is a picture of a mustang with an autopower bar that wrecked at my home track, Hallett. Luckily the driver walked away without injury but I'm not sure how. I realize this could have been an installation error but I've never been too comfortable with these bars after witnessing this...

Here you can see the main hoop bars poking through the floor pan
hallett-carfx-mustang_100232523_m.jpg

hallett-carfx-mustang_100232517_l.jpg

hallett-carfx-mustang_100232515_m.jpg

hallett-carfx-mustang_100232518_l.jpg

hallett-carfx-mustang_100232519_l.jpg
 

Boostd4

Relapsed Turbo Addict
161
0
I had Autopower Roll bars in 2 of my Evos. Well built and very easy to install. Luckily I never rolled either of the cars but I also had larger plates built for them as the standard plates seemed a little smallish. I remember this incident popping up on the forums awhile back and I think the consensus was that it was an install error, but my memory could be foggy.
 
6,362
8,185
just add a doubler plate..

http://www.appliedracing.com/roll-bars-cages-and-components/roll-bar-plate.html

you may also want to powder coat it rather than paint it, but install it first so you know it fits, then pull it out and have it coated/painted
 

dmichaels

Papa Smurf
547
30
CT
Appreciate the feedback - nasty crash shown above, can clearly see the attachment points of the roll bar poking through the undercarriage... the doubler makes sense to add in if I were to go this route... no similar roll bar "failures" with the other ones that I've seen (Watson and Cooltech I believe)?
 

dmichaels

Papa Smurf
547
30
CT
PeteInCT said:
Derek - this unit goes all the way to the floorboards?

Here's a picture - appears to go to base of seatbelts, similar to watson one

DSC_2848.jpg
 
IMG_1433.jpg

That might have been an unusual crash, but I don't know that the S197 doesn't just fold-up when turned upside-down.

Nobody on this forum is as cheap as I am, but this is not the place to save money. Autopower might be good in some applications, but it seems pretty clear to me that they have a basic template that is applied to different vehicles by adjusting basic height and width parameters. Is it good enough? We have already seen that no, it isn't. Maybe with additional spreader plates? Maybe. Better yet, weld-in some proper boxes in the corners of the floorboard, cut the bottoms of the main hoop and weld it to those. Or even better than that, get a bar/cage that attaches to one of the strongest parts of the car, which happens to be only 2 inches away!

I would put my money on one of the manufacturers that makes a product designed specifically for the Mustang. Oh look, MM has their bars on sale today. ;)

http://www.maximummotorsports.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=121_126_414&products_id=1284
 
1,281
3
Tulsa, OK
Jimmy Pribble said:
IMG_1433.jpg

That might have been an unusual crash, but I don't know that the S197 doesn't just fold-up when turned upside-down.

Nobody on this forum is as cheap as I am, but this is not the place to save money. Autopower might be good in some applications, but it seems pretty clear to me that they have a basic template that is applied to different vehicles by adjusting basic height and width parameters. Is it good enough? We have already seen that no, it isn't. Maybe with additional spreader plates? Maybe. Better yet, weld-in some proper boxes in the corners of the floorboard, cut the bottoms of the main hoop and weld it to those. Or even better than that, get a bar/cage that attaches to one of the strongest parts of the car, which happens to be only 2 inches away!

I would put my money on one of the manufacturers that makes a product designed specifically for the Mustang. Oh look, MM has their bars on sale today. ;)

http://www.maximummotorsports.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=121_126_414&products_id=1284

Dang good price!!
 

TMO Supporting Vendors

Top