i saw a car the other day where they had a extra piece of tubing in there roll cage that ran from front to back and was welded to the floor, they said they used that instead of sub frame connectors. our subframes are part of the body right?(not detachable) so would this be a viable alternative as long as they are placed right? im not sure what they called this setup

 

Adding extra bars to roll cages is pretty common to stiffen the chassis. My old Sentra road-racecar had X tubing in the back section of the rollcage to stiffen the rear chassis -- couldn't connect the ends to points on the body of the car per the rules but could connect to actual parts of the bar. I could jack up the car from just in front of a rear wheel, and the opposite rear side of the car came up along with it.

My car has a four-point rollbar, and I could have a tube welded as low as possible behind the front seats to connect the vertical posts. (But I think the car would be better off with SFCs and taking out the rollbar to save some weight.)

As far as being better or equal to subframe connectors, I don't know.

Pat

 

Roll cages can stiffen the chasis but subframe connectors are the best thing for it. I am going to get a 4 or 6 point rollbar for my Camaro since subframe connectors aren't legal in STS which I want to stay in. The roll bar will wait till I get other suspension pieces.

 

My cage has sill bars but sill bars don't replace SFC. The cage is still attached to the sheet metal through the mounting plates. SFC tie the front and rear sub frames together that a cage just can't do.

SFC stiffen the chassis. Roll cages/bars add some rigidity but are designed to protect the driver.