Project Celica

Above all, the driver's safety is the most important factor in building a racecar.  Because this car was originally a daily commuter, it was not built with the safety equipment needed for motorsports.  Accidents can happen quickly and violently in racing, so any car involved in door-to-door racing should have a roll cage, fuel cell, racing seat with 5 or 6 point safety belts, and other safety measures.  Safety is our number one priority at KBR, and we take our driver's health seriously.

We bought our rollcage from Jim Whitley at RollCageComponents.com . Jim built us a cage with all prebent 1 3/4" OD .095 wall ERW tubing.  All the tubes were made long and had one end fish mouthed so we could fit the cage up snuggly to the Celica's unibody. Yes. DOM tubing is required by alot of sanctioning bodies (but not ChumpCar or 24 Hours of LeMons) and it is good stuff but it is still welded tubing just like ERW but with an additional sizing operation where it is drawn over a mandrel.  Back in the 1960's ERW was not suitable for roll cage tubing because of process control issues but today US tubing mills have much better process and quality control. 

My Dad's friends from work, Johnnie Floyd and Nick Gozelski, came over to help install the roll cage.  They welded the entire cage together in 4 hours!  It is nice to have friends that worked for NASCAR Cup teams. Needless to say we feel really good about this cage.