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Install
It was a tight fit to wrestle the roll bar into place in the car. Once in, I was lucky, the roll bar fit very well and bolting it in was pretty easy. I used very strong grade 8 bolts, race rules call for 5 or better. These pictures show just one of the three bolts per pad.
       

At first I tried just drooping one wheel, hoping there was enough clearance to put in the bolts for the underside pad for the rear fender wells. It turns out it was tight enough I took the wheel off after all. If the car were ever to be lowered, one would need to check and make sure the wheel would not hit the roll bar bolt heads under full compression (this is another arguement for welding in a roll cage rather than bolting it in).
 

Here are a few shots of the finished install. The plastic interior side panels were really hard to reinstall. Most Camaro roll bar stays go back further, past this plastic panel, which would make the install easier. I also got the holes I cut a little off, it was hard to measure exactly where to put them. Overall, though, I think the roll bar looks good in the car. I'm also glad I went with black. It matches the interior gray well, and makes it less obvious the car has a roll bar from the outside. The rear seat is very usable, I have ridden back there myself and the roll bar is no problem. I can still fold down the rear seat, and recline the front seats.
         

This picture is just to prove I used SFI rated foam to pad the roll bar. The 2nd picture shows how I used the hole saw to shape the end of the foam, the same one I used to cut the main hoop ends of the stays.
 

These shots show the roll bar pads.

       

Some people say their car chassis is noticeably stiffer after installing a roll bar. The roll cage can act like a frame that actually does make the car stiffer. So far, in street driving and a couple of autocrosses, I haven't been able to notice a difference. The 4th gen Camaro is known for having a fairly stiff chassis, particularly in the rear, so it is not a big surprise to me I can't tell the car is stiffer.

Keywords: Camaro, Firebird, LT1, LS1, autocross, road racing, SCCA, NHRA, drag racing, safety, roll bar, welding, racing rules

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