As you know, Brakim Racing is building a Lamborghini Gallardo into a gravel rally car. And that means it is going to need a cage. And here it is, a complete wonder.
Thompson Racing Fabrication built this cage. They've been involved with rally for coming up on two decades and they've worked with Brakim Racing since those guys got involved in rally.
I asked Ryan what it was like putting a rally-spec cage in a Lamborghini. Remember, this cage has to be ultra strong. While a normal Lamborghini race car might crash into a tire barrier or a wall, this thing will be rocketing sideways past trees, dropoffs, and just about anything else you really, really don't want to hit.
I figured that the hardest part of the job would be the tight confines of the car. As it turned out, Ryan said that the dimensions weren't that bad. At least, they weren't that unusual. He's caged small cars like Triumphs and Honda CRXs before.
What was a real challenge was that the Lamborghini is aluminum.
He's caged aluminum cars before, but this Lambo took a lot of work to get fully braced. In a steel car, you could easily weld in bracing. With this, you have to bolt in. There are at least a dozen tie-in points for this cage. Scroll through the pictures (click the little magnifying glass in the corner to expand them to full resolution) and you'll get a sense of just how much work went into this cage.
I've said it before and I've said it again — I can't wait to see this thing in action.Photo Credits: Thompson Racing Fabrication/Erik Olsen
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