Not just another crash bar
 

We are finalizing the production versions of our crash bars for the Speeds and wanted to see what everyone thought of our design for the Gen 2.

First off, OEM fitment was a must. Our Impact bar has the same outer profile as the OEM bar ensuring that the factory bumper foam is pushing against it. This helps support the bumper cover and aids in low speed impacts. Gen 2 bumper covers also gain their support by resting the weight of the cover on the outer edge of the crash bar. Since ours is unlike the other crash bars out there, you can rely on your bumper cover not wanting to rip itself off due to the lack of support.

Placing the intercooler behind the crash bar allows for more size options than just the Treadstone TR8/L intercoolers. We will be offering some of our own intercooolers to support up to 1000+ hp. Brackets for the TR8/L will be available, what other intercoolers is anyone interested in brackets for?

Crash-worthiness aside, does anyone have interest in an aluminum version?

We'd love to hear some feedback!

TR1245/Tr1235 would be ideal on a Gen1 for me, My cut stock crash bar looks pretty fugly.

that is a pretty sweet looking piece

Ya, he must work out.

This is glorious. Crashbar looks good too.

@Matt@HTP; do you have any recommendations as to where to place a heavy-duty tow hook? The one that goes into the crash bar is not really meant for towing. Think about road racing after some serious rain -- when you go off, you may end up in mud up to your axles. I was thinking about having a tow hook welded to the front frame/crash beams where the crash bar bolts to but I know Miatas get their tow hooks bent quite often while towing so maybe a better solution would be a bolt-on tow hook that bolts to the frame either horizontally or vertically? I guess that would require extra nuts welded to the frame to support the tow hook.

Meth tank

Can you email me a pic of the crashbar/frame rail area? Adding a threaded tube to the center of the frame rail would work nicely.

I will be updating that thread soon!

Do you have a Gen 1, 2 or 6?

This is what I have from my various build threads -- note it is a speed6. :D

The main reason I never went FMIC is because I wasn't going to cut my crash bar. This will be a great option if it sells for a fair price and if it is sold for the MS6.

Speed6 crash bar for a tr10 would be awesome

I thought you were talking about Miatas haha. I have our shop 6 in pieces finalizing that crash bar as well.


Remember to enter our contest this month to win one of these crash bars!

Miatas already have half a dozen tow hook choices. :)

I'll just buy one. Let guys with tighter budgets win one. :beerchug:

Is this the stock bar, but with the necessary modifications to fit a bigger fmic? Stock ones are $100 shipped on ebay (part # BBM450070B) so hopefully this one will end up under $200...

Its not crazy hard to have someone with a cutter/welder modify/reweld the stock one (which what i assume you're doing), so it would be good if you guys made some profit for the convenience, but don't go crazy...

This is not a cut stock one. If it was, then the price would end up too high. We have cut stock bars then reinforced them and the amount of time it takes is not feasible.

We have engineered a bar that follows the stock profile and has brackets that support everything properly. Let's face it, unless we have a group buy of at least 5000 bars we won't be hitting that price point.

Hey, thats totally cool, Im not here to tell you your business just throwin some thoughts out there. It took me about 3 hours to redo a stock one for another car. First time doing it. If you have someone handy and experienced could be less time. A two bar per day production would probably never get outpaced by demand. But i trust you did all the calcs and math. Lets just hope its somewhat affordable. I just found a stock new one for $50 shipped, so im going to be welding my own up.

I also just realized that the crashbar you made is that gray thing on top of the black stock bar... at first I didn't even pay attention to that, since I thought it was some foam add-on. There is no way that bar will provide anywhere near the safety of a stock bar, or even a stock bar modified for a tr8 (those are basically just notched on the bottom part of it and re-welded, so rigidity is barely compromised). You should probably take out that whole "low speed crash impact help" part out of the description, unless you have some crash data to back that up. It does look more solid than any other aftermarket bar out there, but unfortunately, pun somewhat intended, that's not a high bar to go by.

A crash bar that will accept a core bigger than a tr8?!? What a novel concept.

Thanks for your input.

Our replacement bar is plenty rigid, in fact, we have to pay close attention to make it so that it is not stronger than the OEM. Please study the OEM bar and notice that the center is stout, and the mounting flange area is meant to give. Take in to consideration all of this information coupled with the fact that you are also now placing a heavy brick of aluminum (intercooler) in the impact zone as well. When your intercooler is mounted properly this adds to impact absorption.

We aren't just some company with a sawzall and a welder working out of our home garage. We have been in business 16 years and have extensive experience including owning a body shop. We have seen our fair share of crashed cars with modified crash bars and FMIC's, we've analyzed the area's of impact, and repaired them. Of course, we haven't crashed tested these per NHTSA, but our customer with the prototype ran it 40mph into a tree stump and it was repaired no problem. These will of course be sold for off-road use only.

I'd be happy to answer anymore of your questions or concerns.

I don't have any concerns as long as you always qualify the description with the fact that this bar is for "offroad use only" like you just did. Outside of NHTSA's testing, very few measures can be used as valid "we tested this for safety" evidence. "Tree stumps at 40mph" don't really fit that bill. I'm very glad you are providing an alternative to the existing products. Keep up the good work.

Thank you! I actually appreciate the feedback and engagement of conversation of how products work. Although, an isolated accident does not provide enough info to validate a product, we do however make every effort to manufacture the best product even if it is "off-road use only".

A crash bar that accepts anything from a small CX racing core up to the TR10 series cores would be ideal I'm sure for everyone.

Well, except anyone running silicone piping that is.

Are they all just going to come in black?

Well, the big secret is........this crash bar is silicone! Damage will bounce right off, all with minimal NVH. :-)


Custom coating will be available with the standard custom lead times.

Zing.

Off road use only should really be replaced with "off the record use only", haha. Bar looks nice, hurry up and take my monies!

Do we have a release date yet? Im trying to get my ducks in a row for my fmic purchase.

January will see the release of this and multiple other new products. This platform is going to be pushed to new limits in 2015!

Two weeks.

Err, I mean, two days.

I said neither of those things. ;-)

So many options are becoming nice! Can't wait to see what is next, I love the 3" intake I am running of y'alls and would like to have more products from you.

So may end up with a nice FMIC once your crash bar is out, pair it with JBR piping and a nice treadstone core....

This is exactly what I am thinking.

HTP is working on their own intercooler kits that WON'T be 85% silicone...

It will also be underneath the car that is a huge bonus and is not currently offered by any other vendor right now.

rumour has it that it will be more than just piping...

Well...if pricing is comparable to a treadstone tr8, jbr piping and crashbar, and fits like an oem product, I will be their first customer. That's not too much to ask is it? Now we wait...

What if it's just better quality and performs better?

We'll see how it all plays out. Either way I'm sub'd.

ALL THE OPTIONS!

Well if HTP is working on some piping as well.... then I am interested....