Camera in cars --- previously -> Drilling and roll cages?

[Stealer Of Souls]

Hey there... I'm wanting to build a mounting setup for a camera in my car... What I wanna know is can I drill into the roll cage? Or is that illegal?

[fangsport]

i would be far wiser to clamp/weld a bracket to the cage for this purpose.

[GT4 20]

Whether it's illegal or not, I'd advise against it as driiling a hole will potentially weaken that tube.
Far better as fangsport says to clamp a bracket on. I'm pretty sure that any bracket must conform to a minimum load rating too.
Gary

[Leon]

weld or make a bracket.

Has to be good for 20 g's off the top of my head.

[NZ_AE86]

Yeah, clamp something to the cage but to keep all scrutineers happy you need to semi enclose the camera. But do not weld to your cageor drill into it as this will void your Homolgation (I asume it is homologated).

[JasonZE]

You need to make up a mounting system for the camera it pays to have a flat area so the bolt going into the camera clamps the entire bottom of the camera to the monting platform rather than having it hanging off that single bolt alone.

Steel "U shaped" exhaust clamps are cheap and plenty strong enough and can get them anywhere repco pitstop etc.
Just put some thought into it as you do need a bit of adjustment to get the camera angle right and most cars i have seen the cam is on the diagonal cross bar as well.

[Stealer Of Souls]

hey all...

My cage is supposed to be homologated... But I never did find out what happened to my paperwork... it's on the list of things to do....

I was leaning toward bolting the bracket/platform/whatever to the cage using those U clamp thingys....
If I ever get off my lazy butt I guess I'll figure it out properly...

[Si]

Where is it you want the camera pointed?

[Stealer Of Souls]

The one I'm wanting to attach to the cage will point forwards.
The rear facing one will be mounted on the hatch somewhere...

[t0ms]

as some one has already stated, welding or drilling into the cage will void the homologation as it could possibly cause a weak point. much better to make up a bracket or the like to mount it onto.

might wanna take into account the size of the camera also assuming that your needing a "plate to mount it on" it aint small...

personally i wouldnt like the through of a couple of kilo's worth of camera bouncing round inside the cabin in the unlikely event.

would it not be wise to invest in something like a small colour tube camera or something such that usually come with a swing mounting that you could modify to clamp onto the pipe of the cage???

my 2 c anyway
cheers
tom

[Stealer Of Souls]

I was thinking of using my digital camera for now, but ultimately I want to use colour CCDs... they're so small it wouldn't matter...
I want to use a plate to provide a stable platform I can build shock asborbing in to...

[MrOizo]

OR

i can hook you up with a camera setup...

if you get a copy of the TS DVD you can have a look at some of the work

We use a suction cup tho, but if you were keen and wanted to contributee a little we could always get a clamp...

At the moment were recording to Mini DV but hope to be going straight to MPEG in the future...

As long as you have a place to tie down the recorders bag we can do somethign about it.









Let me know - should be able to sort you out...

PM for more info

[Stealer Of Souls]

Looks like a good idea...
How permanent do you reckon you get these? What are they worth?

I'm thinking of using the cameras as a security thing as well... When not on the track a laptop or VCR could record what the cameras see when I'm not in the car.
I'm also thinking of mounting cameras to watch my pedals and dash so that I can see what I'm doing when I'm driving to try and improve my technique etc....