Cage Install.

For competing in British racing/rallying series, the MSA Blue Book, is your absolute bible for what type of cage you’ll need. If you’re considering competing Internationally, you’ll want the relevant FIA regs. Both sets of regs will take a little bit of reading to understand, but for the most part it boils down to you needing to have certain ‘mandatory members’ in your cage. In general, the FIA cages may need a few more gussets and crosses and such, but 99% of FIA cages will be suitable for MSA stuff.

The other major choice you’ll need to make is whether to use ‘CDS’ or ‘T45’ steel for the cage. CDS is the cheaper, heavier option, but T45 will need you to have a special certificate created for your car to use thinner bars, so is more expensive. Most people who fit cages will be able to give a bit of advice for what you will and won’t need, but if you’re getting yourself in a bit of a muddle and want some advice, you can always give us a message.

Cages come in two main types: Bolt-in or Weld-in. Bolt in cages are not generally used on new build cars anymore, but they are a way of buying a cage ‘kit’ and only having to weld in certain mounting points to the shell. Weld in cages on the other hand required you to mess about with having to fabricate a whole cage yourself. Weld in cages are by far the safer and more permanent option for a race/rally build. For anything above clubman level, you’ll probably be required to have a weld in cage anyway.

For the 205 Gti build, we went for a weld-in cage in CDS, as while we wanted this to be a strong and safe… this was not going to be a ‘half second per kilometre’ car. With all the will in the world, we’d be lying if we said that there was no limit to cost being spent on each project to make a car go faster. Each build has got its own limits to how much is spent on each part of the car. On the ugly step sister build to this, the 106 Gti Rallycar, a T45 cage was chosen, for various sciencey and nerdy reasons which you can read about HERE. There were a couple of extra members that were selected for both cars, that are not mandatory, but were thought to have been necessary.

You’ve also got to remember that cages are not just for when you’re wheels up in a ditch; a cage provides stiffness and strength to the shell of a car so it’s important to consider where it mounts to. They should be mounted as close to suspension mounting points as possible, but make sure you can still access mounting fixtures easily for when you need to change .