I had been looking for a pre-fabbed roll cage for the AE92 coupe for a while. Problem was, if you wanted a high quality, custom-fit cage, you had to source it from Japan and end up paying a little over $1000 and maybe a little more for shipping to the US. Seeing as I didn't want to spend that much money on just the roll cage, I patiently waited to see if a used cage would pop up in the US.
In July of 2002, some friends in the Corolla community noticed a roll cage for the AE92 on eBay. I ended up winning the auction for a relatively low $335 including shipping. The seller informed me that it was missing the rear diagonal brace that tied in the main hoop to the far left brace that bolted to the wheelhousing. "No problem," I said, "I can get a local race shop to fabricate it for me."
The cage arrived in two large boxes and I quickly tore 'em open. Total combined weight including the packaging was around 60 lbs. I assembled the cage on the driveway to see what it looked like. The welds were top-notch and all of the pieces looked to be in good shape. Sure, there were some scratches in the white paint, but that didn't matter to me that much--I was gonna have it powdercoated in gunmetal gray so it didn't stand out so much in the interior.
Honestly, I would have been happy with just a 4-point cage, but having the extra rear bracing never hurts. Yeah, it may add a good 60-65 pounds to the car, but the increase in structural stiffness/rigidity and safety alone are well worth the weight. The cage that I have is a 7-point version. I believe Safety 21 has a 9-point cage for the AE92 coupe as well. But, like the other pre-fabbed cages, you'll need to source it from Japan for a premium price.
I plan to have a bolt-in crossbar added to the main hoop. I'll need it to properly mount the harnesses and rear seatback brace (unless the SCCA gets rid of that antiquated rule). The hard part will be fabbing and welding the brackets to the main hoop in the same style as the Safety 21 brackets.
Below, you'll find some pics that I took of the cage as-installed in my car. I had to semi-strip the interior just for ease of installation. The interior looks bare, but it takes less than 30 minutes to pull everything out at an easy pace.
Look for more pics when I'm finished with the cage...
You have to remove the rear seats, rear side panels, and front seats to install the cage. Watch out for the small
"push to release"-type plastic fastener at the bottom of the rear side panels--I broke mine. Doh!
You can see how much the white paint sticks out against the gray interior. Oddly enough, I was beginning
to like the contrast, but decided against leaving it white. I don't want to attract too much attention, so
it'll be powdercoated in gunmetal gray as soon as I get the missing rear diagonal brace and harness crossbar
fabricated.
You can see where the missing rear diagonal brace bolts to the brackets on the main hoop and left brace. You
have to remove the dome light assy to slip the main hoop behind it. But, you can put the dome light back on
afterwards. How many times have you seen a race car with a dome light??? =)
You can get a closer look at the quality of the work and attention to detail.
A look at the front portion of the cage. I had to remove the sun visors and the passenger's interior hand
hold that's above the door frame.
A closer look...
The main hoop and rear base plates. If you look closely, you can see the foam that Toyota installed at the
factory. Maybe it was an attempt at reducing undue noise and vibration in the passenger cabin? I left the
foam in there for now. =)
Close quarters with the dome light.
The front base plate. I think all of the numerous times that the car was jacked up and placed on stands took
a toll on the front floorplan. You can't really tell in this pic, but the front edge of the base plate isn't
really touching the floor. I'll have to hammer the floor down to better fit the front base plates.
You can see the front base plate misalignment a little better in this pic. Peep the JDM Trueno steering wheel
from my friend, Ut. You can also see the cheapie pedal covers that I got for $20. Unless you have extra-wide
feet, ain't no way in hell you can heel-toe with the stock pedal faces--the gas and brake are too far away
from each other and too small.
See how close the clearance is?! After some minute adjusting of the cage's installation (read: a few fell
wacks with my trusty 5-lb. sledge hammer!) it barely cleared the dash. At least I don't have to mangle the
stock dashboard for the cage.