Roll Bar's and Drivers Education

Got a question for the Group. I am a new BMW owner, and a new member of the BMWCCA, Sandlapper Club in SC. I have a 2000 M Roadster, with the factory roll bars. I want to drive my car in a Porsche Club DE at VIR this fall, yea I know, why with the Porsches? (I use to own a 911 and several of my friends still do!) The Carolina's PCA says that I can not run at VIR because of a no Convertibles rull without having the proper Roll Bar. VIR says if I meet the SCCA Solo 1 specs I am OK. How do I find out if my factory Roll Bars meet those specs? VIR rep says most likely the "Broom Stick" rule would apply. Any thoughts?

Z4 Roadsters can usually run in PCA HPDEs "as-is" because they offer the same roll over protection as the Boxster. Granted, though, each local chapter has their own rules. Keep in mind, if you're not a solo driver, then whatever protection you've added for the driver (racing seat, harness, etc) must also exist (or be better) for the passenger for the instructor.

M Roadster at HPDE's

Thanks for your response. I know it is a hot topic among all Z3, Z4, and BMW Convertible owners. Since the post was last fall, I had already obtained the answer. I was unable to drive my car at that particular VIR event with the Porsche Club, as they said it was a VIR rule. However, I contacted several VIR upper personnel, and they said it was not their rule, but the Clubs. In any event, I decided not to take a chance of going up and losing my money, so I again drove my brother's Highly Modified Track Mustang in Green Group, and got signed off to drive Solo in Blue Group. Would really like to get my car on a track, and move into White Group to drive with my friends and family. My wife feels that I will ruin the look both inside and out of our M Roadster if we put in an appropriate roll bar and harnesses? As much as I love my M Roadster, if I had known all of this up front, I would have bought a different car; probably a M3, Porsche, or Mustang.

Thanks Again,
Tommy Buckman

You could probably pickup a pretty decent E36 M3 between $6-$10k and have a dedicated track toy. I imagine you could find some non-M E36 for even less. Of course, any of them might well need some cash thrown at them to make them trackworthy.