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!

Cool Tech LLC GT/GT350/GT350R 4-PT Roll Bar Kits - Available

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

It’s great to see so many track enthusiasts gathered in one place and sharing their experiences in driving these cars the way they were intended to be used. Hats off to the moderators and participants who have contributed to the great content of this site and have made it the success that it is.

I’d like to introduce the immediate availability of our 2015+ GT/GT350/GT350 4-point roll bar kit for these great cars. Many enthusiasts purchased our roll bar kit for the S197 Mustang and we have had persistent requests to develop a 2015+ solution. To this end, almost a year ago we purchased a GT as a development car and because of the difficulty of the design (as compared to the S197) and the distraction of other racing projects we were involved in, this kit took us a full year to bring to market! The good news is that the units are completed and we have several in stock and already powdercoated in some popular colors.

Our S197 roll bar kit was developed using our Laguna Seca and I think a large percentage of our customers were owners of the LS model. For GT and “normal” Boss 302 owners, our S197 kit predicated the installation of a rear seat delete (RSD) kit. RSD kits are available at many quality levels and price points, but ultimately the requirement for an RSD was a more or less mandatory additional cost. For our 2015+ roll bar kits, one of our primary design objectives was to fit the GT350R model – without requiring modification to any GT350R unique (read costly) parts. Simultaneously, we wanted a bar kit that would also fit the more popular GT and GT350 cars. In summary, with more than 1-year of on and off development time, our solution accomplishes these objectives. It fits all GT/GT350/GT350R models and does NOT require an RSD kit – but fits equally well if an RSD kit is chosen by the owner (or the OEM as is the case with the 350R.) This is, perhaps, one of the biggest differentiators of our roll bar kit.

As much as we wanted to fit all of the different Mustang models - with minimal interior modifications, we also wanted a roll bar kit that would be workable for short and tall drivers alike. The seatbacks of the optional Recaro seats in particular, are very thick. In the new 2015+ cars, the main hoop fore/aft position is dictated by the beam that runs across the car at the front edge of the rear seat. Mounting a main hoop to the floor either in front of or behind this main beam is a no-go because of “punch-through” concerns. With the main hoop mounted to this structural beam, a planar harness bar becomes problematic. Properly located in height, a planar solution interferes with seat travel. Lowering the harness bar decreases but does not eliminate the interference, but simultaneously falls out of the acceptable norms of harness bar height requirements. The proper solution, also employed in our S197 kits, is to employ much-harder-to-manufacture kick-back in the harness bar. Seat travel is preserved and the harness bar height can be properly aligned with the OEM seat back openings. This is a second differentiator in our roll bar kit.

Another design element that we sweated the details over a lot was install-ability. As mentioned previously, we wanted to mitigate mods to interior components. Our mods are 100% limited to the plastic side panels which are common across ALL Mustang models. So, if you are a GT350 or GT350R owner, your are modifying a panel that is in common with all Mustang trims and not unique or stupid expensive. And the mods are straightforward. There is minor trimming at the bottom of each side panel and then there is a single hole that is cut out for the downtubes. There are no slots or separating/combining of panels. That’s it….. minor trimming and a single hole on each side. The roll bar kit utilizes numerous Grade 8 fasteners (all included, of course) but EVERY nut in the entire kit is captive. There is not a single step in the installation where you will have to be employing two wrenches to secure the fasteners. This ease of installation is a third differentiator.

Our roll bar tubing is entirely TIG-welded by journeymen craftsman who take great pride in their work and in each “stack of dimes” of every weld. Literally works of art. NOTE: The red roll bar in the pictures is our pre-production workhorse roll bar that was used to create the jigging. It was MIG-welded by us (amateurs compared to our fabricator) and DOES NOT represent the weld quality. For that reason, I have included some pics of the production welds. (We have numerous bar kits in stock that are not yet powdercoated and I’d be happy to grab additional photos if there was interest.) Colors that are in-stock and can be shipped immediately (as of Feb 10) are; Ford Race Red, Competition Orange, Satin Black, and Charcoal Gunmetal Gray (think 2013 Laguna Seca X-brace color.)

I’ll close the same way that I opened this thread. Thanks to you the enthusiasts who are really getting the most out of the car and using it to its potential. It’s great to see and in our minds a much better use than a “garage queen” though we respect these owners as well. We hope that some of you may think about our roll bar solution for your cars and we thank you for the consideration. This is a link to product. http://www.cooltechllc.com/ford-boss-302-parts-accessories/90-boss-roll-bar-from-cool-tech-llc.html

Driver1.jpg


Driver5.jpg


Driver3.jpg


Driver7.jpg


From_Back.jpg


Pass3.jpg


Conn1.jpg


Tig3.jpg


Tig4.jpg
 

steveespo

Lord knows I'm a Voodoo Child
Moderator
4,008
1,924
Exp. Type
W2W Racing
Exp. Level
10-20 Years
Cookeville TN
I am a happy owner of the S197 version and like that the new bar has what appears to be straight downtubes. Also can the cross bar be tied to the diagonal with a short section of tube? Would make both tubes work a little better in an incident. Pictures of the mounting points would be great too. I will be interested.
Steve

Stock Photo of new horse in the stable;
New%2021_zpsqzarxjy0.png
 
Hi Steve!! To answer your questions. Yes, the downtubes are straight. The diagonal for the main hoop is in-plane and the harness bar is kicked back ~6" to provide full seat travel and proper harness height. There IS a short connector between the two (shown in the first picture of the welds). This is the same way we fabricated our S197 bars that were ordered with the diagonal. (The diagonal is standard in the 2015+ kits.) Our kit includes brackets that attach to the main OEM beam which is constructed of high strength steel. Downward forces are carrier directly by this beam. I'll find a pic of our brackets. The downtubes mount just in front of a vertical reinforced bulkhead that mounts the rear shoulder belt mechanism. The bottom surface and the vertical surface are both double wall reinforced. We also supply a backing plate for the opposite side. Notice too that we incorporate a flange that is against the vertical bulkhead. In an incident this reduces shear load on the Grade-8 attachment bolts. Here's a pic from our prototype work.

Down_Tube.jpg
 

steveespo

Lord knows I'm a Voodoo Child
Moderator
4,008
1,924
Exp. Type
W2W Racing
Exp. Level
10-20 Years
Cookeville TN
CoolTechLLC said:
Hi Steve!! To answer your questions. Yes, the downtubes are straight. The diagonal for the main hoop is in-plane and the harness bar is kicked back ~6" to provide full seat travel and proper harness height. There IS a short connector between the two (shown in the first picture of the welds). This is the same way we fabricated our S197 bars that were ordered with the diagonal. (The diagonal is standard in the 2015+ kits.) Our kit includes brackets that attach to the main OEM beam which is constructed of high strength steel. Downward forces are carrier directly by this beam. I'll find a pic of our brackets. The downtubes mount just in front of a vertical reinforced bulkhead that mounts the rear shoulder belt mechanism. The bottom surface and the vertical surface are both double wall reinforced. We also supply a backing plate for the opposite side. Notice too that we incorporate a flange that is against the vertical bulkhead. In an incident this reduces shear load on the Grade-8 attachment bolts. Here's a pic from our prototype work.

Down_Tube.jpg
I thought I saw the connecting piece between the diagonal and harness bar in the raw pics but not in the finish install pics. Looks good and I do like the kick up flange at the bulkhead on the down stays. Quality work once again.
 
It’s great to see so many track enthusiasts gathered in one place and sharing their experiences in driving these cars the way they were intended to be used. Hats off to the moderators and participants who have contributed to the great content of this site and have made it the success that it is.

Do you offer any customizations with this bar?
 

TMO Supporting Vendors

Latest posts

Buy TMO Apparel

Buy TMO Apparel
Top