One point that hasn't come up in this thread is that the type of roll bar we generally have on our Cobras is intended to work in conjunction with a crash helmet on a racetrack. If your head can come close to touching any part of your roll bar while you are belted in and you aren't wearing a helmet; your bar on the street is far more likely to deliver blunt force trauma to your cranium than to protect it in a rollover.
On the street, front, side and rear impacts not involving a rollover are by a huge margin the most common (and therefore likely) types of accidents. In any type of impact, the occupants' heads are thrown around violently first towards the direction of impact and then back the other way as the seatback and belts slingshot the torso back and forth.
Rear impacts are common in small, high horsepower, rear drive cars as the rear will often break loose and come around at speed, crashing arse-first into barriers, obstacles or other vehicles. Here, or when another car impacts you from behind, the Cobra occupant is almost certain to slam his/her head into the bar as an immediate reaction to the impact.
In a front end hit, your head initially shoots forward on impact, but if the seatbelts and seatback hold, you will snap backward in reaction to that initial motion. Either way, unless your skull is protected by a helmet, the roll bar you installed to give you peace of mind is very likely to destroy a piece of your mind instead.
Of course, if the roll bar is not there to stop your head from snapping all the way back, you may suffer a nasty case of whiplash, or worse - damage to your spinal cord. So take your pick - an injured neck or a blow to the back of your head with a heavy piece of pipe. Cobras are just not "safe" cars in terms of occupant proection.
Thick padding on the roll bars would help some I suppose (bystanders would be treated to hearing a more palatable "thud" as opposed to a sickening "crack"), and seats with good, properly mounted head restraints would be even better. Hell, throw in a padded dash and steering wheel too - but then the more the car is festooned with modern add on safety stuff, it starts to look and feel less like a Cobra and more like a mismatched, nerfed-out, watered down pose mobile. Which then begs the question - why not just buy a modern day convertible and hop it up with a set of vinyl racing stripes?
Me? Ive often toyed with the idea of removing my forward braced roll bar - which is even more dangerous on the street - but so far I haven't, and just make do with the padding. I also don't drive crazy fast on public roads much anymore - never with a passenger on board - and I do wear a helmet when doing any kind of racing.
What was the point of this post? Hell, I don't know - just rambling, I suppose. Do whatever makes you happy with your Cobra - it's yours after all - and just get home safe at the end of the day!
