Hi Micheal,
I did a terrible mistake about the mig welding issue, when I wrote this I was thinking bodywork and mig welds from bodywork surely don't have the same strenght as welds used in framework. Sorry for that
For the part on the bases of the roll cage main hoops, I never said they were useless, I simply based my analysis on the fact that vennard was talking about body instead of floorpan:
"My main concern was that the cage may tear up from the mounting points on the body, as they are bolted through rather than welded to it" vennard
From what I understood, there would be some sort of a base plate installed on thin bodywork sheet metal, it could be anywhere on the inside of the car. Fortunatly vennard was talking about the floorpan.
Also, I know what monocoque means. Monocoques, with their ability to spread loads to their surface, considerably increased chances of survival to an accident over the traditionnal rigid rail frame designs used before. It enabled the car to absorb most of the energy on impact. Rigid frame rails didn't absorb that energy, the driver did. Race car design used in Cart and F1 racing pushed that concept on a higher level by creating monocoques that would literally "explode" (except the ****pit area) and therefore dissipating the energy gained during impact in the flying debris of the racecar. Unfortunately, that didn't save Greg Moore's Life back in 1999
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