Brey-Krause Roll Bar Extension

The padding kit for the BK roll bar extension finally arrived, so I installed the whole thing in preparation for the upcoming PCA-GGR Time Trial which requires Boxsters to run with the hard top and the BK roll bar extension.

You will have to judge for yourself how it looks. I would say that from some angles it's not very obtrusive; from some angles it's quite ugly; and from others it looks like a beefy enhancement. All in all, I think it would be more reasonable to require it only if the driver does not pass the "broomstick" clearance test. The Boxster's boron steel reinforced four-point-roll-bar and A-pillar are extremely sturdy. The BK extension only adds an inch or two of height, and if anything might decrease the structural safety because it could conceivably break off at its mounting points. On the other hand, it's been pointed out that the straight-across bar provided by the BK extension could help lessen any "digging in" effect of landing upside-down on sand or soft dirt. I guess I'd say the BK extension is a reasonable requirement given its moderate cost of about $600; not so with the hard top requirement, with which for between $2000 and $3500 of additional expense you get a dubious amount of additional safety protection (the lightweight aluminum top provides no additional structural strength, and though it could help keep debris out in a rollover, it's not a requirement made of other open cars).

You can use the plexiglass windstop with the BK extension installed, but you can't use the plastic roll hoop screens because of the bracket locations. When raising or lowering the soft top, you will likely need to close the soft top's front latch (folded shut) so that it clears the middle of the roll bar extension. If you don't do this, when you raise the top (top up) the latch hook may catch on the bar. This little latch behavior becomes habit, so it's not a big deal. When the latch is in the closed position with the top down (stowed), it tends to rattle a little more when you go over bumps. This could be remedied by re-opening the latch after it clears the bar each time you lower the top. But I've gotten into the habit of putting the latch in its closed position all the time anyway, because I think that in the open position it tends to leave scratches on the plastic rear window that is pressed against it when the top is down.

Before installing the bar, you need to pry the roll bar trim off using a flat head screwdriver or putty knife, protecting the roll bar paint as you do so.

In essence, the BK bar bolts on in four places: at the factory seat belt bolts and the top of each hoop.

A plate fits over the seat belt bolt and provides a point for two bolts to attach the bar. The bolts are hex bolts with lock nuts.

At the top of each hoop a piece of adhesive clear tape is provided to protect the finish of the roll bar. The extension bracket is tightened with two threaded hex bolts.

There is a pad for each side to protect your head from hitting the hoop bracket in an impact, which would be dangerous without some form of padding if it happened in a street environment without a helmet. The pad is a metal plate with foam cell padding cut to fit the plate and glued on. The plate has two brackets that clamp to the roll bar extension, the same way the extension clamps to the roll hoops, only in a smaller form. The padding is nicely finished, although one might question the aesthetics of it versus traditional wraparound padding. You have to stand back and eyeball it to determine where the proper position is and to get both sides aligned the same. One advantage to the BK padding kit is that it does not stick up higher than the bar the way wraparound padding would, where it might crunch between the bar and the soft top.

Once you know how it mounts, it's a fairly quick job to install/remove the whole roll bar extension and padding in almost one piece. What I did the first time is simply unscrew the four hoop bracket bolts, then remove the four end bracket nuts/bolts, leaving the two end plates still mounted on the seat belt posts. However, when the end plates are loose like this, I find that this causes just enough binding with the seat belt to prevent the seat belt from retracting easily. So the end plates need to be removed as well (just one more bolt to undo). In any case, installing or removing the bar once you know how is a sub-10-minute job.

Here are photos from a variety of angles so you can judge how ugly it is or isn't. If it's as quick as I expect to install/remove, it'll just be something I use for PCA-GGR Time Trial events.

[ Addendum: I've gotten lazy and rather than install and remove the extension for every track event, I now leave it on probably more than half the time. ]