Anyone have pictures of Ferrari 250 with rollcage mounted?
Back in the days when the 250 was raced there was no such thing as a "roll cage". Even NASCAR racers in those days simply installed a roll bar that was basically a hoop and at most a set of aft diagonal braces to keep the hoop in place. There was no side protection and it didn't stiffen the chassis like a real roll cage. The idea of a "cage" really came along in the late 60's during the Trans Am series. Mark Donahue found that when they acid dipped the unibody of their Camaro to cut the weight that it was really flexible and didn't handle worth a darn. They realized that within the rules they could add "crash and roll over protection" that had diagonal bracing and "side intrusion protection" that would stiffen the car and greatly improve the handling by stiffening the chassis. The result was basically a "ship in a bottle", it was a tube frame car within the acid dipped light weight skin, but it met the rules and they got away with it. Roll over protection, even for the racing cars like the GTO was not considered necessary as these were closed cars and there was some tubing supporting the roof that was considered "adequate" for roll over protection at the time. Going back and looking at the racing Cobras, which were open cars you generally found a single hoop behind the driver, but the earlier Ferraris of the late 50's didn't have any roll over protection since it was considered better to be thrown clear of the car in an accident if it was an open car. If you want to be period correct you would put in a roll hoop at most. If you want to be safe you would add a cage with some side impact protection and a stout roll hoop, but that wouldn't be period correct in any case.
250 TdF with rollcage, no interior shots, though Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
