I would seriously reconsider "opting-out". I've seen some scary pictures of cars with fairly flat A-pillar bars folding right up. In one case, the bent tubing intruded on the space occupied by the drivers head!

Wow, that roof really does not fit well.

Brad, what brand do I have on my car? whatever it is it sure fits a whole lot neater than that.

As joe pointed out it is a race car and it really doesn't matter but for any future builder it might be worth trying to avoid the one that Joe purchased.

Porsche Boxster fiberglass body parts

and they have a picture of one good looking BSR on their page ;)

It looks like who ever trimmed it when it came out of the mold, screwed up. I've had mostly good luck with the GT Racing tops... but I did have one that needed to be replaced (which they did for free). I don't think it's "that much heavier" than the others I've had experience with and the price is pretty good.

thanks for the sage advice stephen (and brad). i will likely bring the car to retrofit the FIA bar. there are other safety things i'm doing to the car that i'm still finishing. like the electrical FE system. this came today. :D
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-O...o/IMAG0997.jpg


laurie, yeah as you can see the lines are not trimmed well. so air will flow thru the back. i guess it's more aerodynamic this way, less drag. :)


sheridan does indeed looks better quality.


it's indeed priced competitively. in terms of weight, i don't have other thing to compare it too other than OE top which weight a ton compared to these. i'm thinking about putting those plastic door guard trims around the edges to hide the imperfections. ;)

I've known Roger Sheridan since 1992 :) I left him with a Boxster for several months so we could take molds from it (everything you see listed on his site)

Something Roger and I did on *our* top? FLUSH MOUNT REAR WINDOW (like real race cars) The GT top is resin with core mat. It's heavier by 8+ lbs.

I recently installed one for Trygve!! Turned out nice. We used a 6 port system, but I physically only used 4 of them. One on each side of the engine aimed at the fuel rails, one on the driver, one on the battery tray area (fuel pump is directly below it)

I have installed the electric systems since 04 or so.. and it still *bothers* me to power them up for the first time :)

Brad, I know you and I have talked about this before, but I think others might benefit from my experience on this...

Brad is 100% correct that the Sheridan top is lighter, and it does have it's advantages over the GT Racing top. I do like the rear window design of the Sheridan top over the GT Racing top, and the fact that it doesn't have the little "tits" from the OEM roof rack bungs on the sides of the top. I have noticed however that the Sheridan top isn't as straight as the GT top. Now for guys like Brad who are all about function over form, a little bit of waviness in the finish/paint is no big deal, and worth the weight savings. Some of my customers would rather have a straight top at the expense of a few pounds, plus a slightly cheaper purchase price. ($200 difference)

Both tops are good in different ways. You just have to know what sort of person you are and make your decision based on your preferences.

Spoken like a true painter!!

You saw version 1 :) not version 7

Not sure how something becomes wavy unless you pull it from the mold early?

I have physically seen the GT molds and helped shape the Sheridan mold.

I promise Sheridan will have better parts over a longer run based on the quality of the mold (I supplied the factory hard top)

But I digress.. I don't paint.. I'd have no idea if it was wavy!!

I guess I have a Sheridan (since I bought it from Brad) and anyone who has seen my car knows I could not care less about aesthetics but in my mind it looks fine from 5', fits fine and can't weigh more than 10lbs - perfect for a racer.

Oh and thanks for the conversation about the extra bar in the cage - Now I'm not going to feel safe until I've ruined the beautiful work done by Precision and add an extra bar or two. Sorry Kent, too far to drive to Arizona to have you do it.

Laurie

I'm a fan of Roger's stuff too, but I have had some of the bubbles or waves occur on top of the foam core in the center of the roof. We poked the bubbles with a needle, filled them with resin, problem solved. AND Roger sent me a free roof for the troubles.

He will be getting my car to build the full ''HRG GT'' Boxster kit soon...

Laurie,

It weighs exactly 10lbs minus paint and rear window. POC watched as I announced the top at 9lbs 5oz. They quickly added a "min. 10lb rule" so we beefed up the lower edge to make it less flimsy :) VOILA!! 10lbs on the dot :)

Luckily.. this current group of POC head honcho's (Eric) actually know something about cars, and don't work in marketing/accounting/hollywood :) :cheers:

thanks for the tip. haven't had time to install it yet but i was thinking 2 nozzles on the engine and 2 nozzles on me. :) anything to watch out for before powering it up first time?

It *should* have a "test" function on the controller. Show me a pic of the controller.

this?
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-a...o/IMAG1006.jpg

whoa.. that is a BIG plate!!

You leave it in test, and hit the "FIRE" buttons.

I typically mount a button inside for the driver, and obviously the one outside.

To prevent accidental release from inside the car, put a thin piece of silver tape over the recessed button hole (assuming they sold you a dash mounted push button for the cabin! They typically have a 1/2 inch deep shroud that mounts around the button. Put the foil tape over the shroud (so in an emergency, you have to push through the tape)

Humans have a tendency to push button's, the one time you forget to disarm it, will be when a neighbor kid jumps in the drivers seat, sees a red button.. and pushes it.

At least one per large event gets "set off" No joke.

COTA this year? PCA club race? I get a call from the scrutineers running the show.. "um Brad?, do you know someone here in Austin that sells the electric fire bottles"?

Yes :) Call xxx-xxx-xxxx

I got the GT top due to fast delivery time vs. the Sheridan top. Fit-and-finish on the Sheridan is much better. The quality of the window hole cut in my GT top is ... a hack job. I mean, it actually looks like someone using the saw slipped while cutting one edge. And the lexan provided is not a great fit in the moulded window recess either. The other minor issue is the front corners don't line up / fill out the window frame quite right. It's all OK and functional -- my car looks good! -- but if you can handle the extra few weeks of lead time and the extra couple hundred bucks, get the Sheridan top.

excuse me for not updating this thread in awhile.
car is pretty much BSR spec-ready and will be my 1st time racing with PCA this weekend. i'm soooo looking forward to it! :dance:
the build has been fun and therapeutic. i pretty much diy everything except for the cage and corner/alignment.
don't have 3rd radiator yet but the water temps have been okay with all the DE days i've done with the car as the build was progressing. anyways, here she is now in race livery. :)

http://986forum.com/forums/uploads01/bsr1409813317.jpg

Great looking car! Post up some more pic's and video for us.

Looks great - i'll be up at Thill with NCRC on the 19th of September.