--- title: "You Can Spend Hours Designing Roll Cages With This Free Online Tool" date: "2026-11-14" modified: "2026-11-14" authors: - name: "Stephen Edelstein" job_title: "Weekend Editor" link: "https://www.thedrive.com/authors/stephen-edelstein.md" url: "https://www.thedrive.com/news/you-can-spend-hours-designing-roll-cages-with-this-free-online-tool" categories: - "News" --- # You Can Spend Hours Designing Roll Cages With This Free Online Tool ![FIA Article 253 App J cage 3D view]() *\Frog Racing\* If you're going racing, [you need a roll cage](). But there often isn't an off-the-rack option that meets the requirements of the series you plan to race in—one that provides adequate protection and actually fits in your car. Get the design wrong, and you'll waste a lot of time and material. Now there's a free online tool to help ensure that doesn't happen. [Frog Racing](), a Massachusetts-based nonprofit that promotes motorsports, has [a number of helpful guides]() and tools for aspiring racers. One of them is its [roll cage assessment tool](), which can build a virtual roll cage based on parameters you specify like the tubing, welds, and layout, and then compare it against different sanctioning bodies' rulebooks to find out if it's legal as well as assign a safety score. ![NHRA Drag racing cage 3D view]() ![Subaru Impreza GD -- Broken Motorsports DOM tubing 3D view]() The tool is pre-loaded with sample cages, including real-world examples, commercially available kits, and generic examples like a half cage, NHRA-compliant drag racing cage, and an FIA Article 253 Appendix J cage (the tool's safety score is also based on Article 253). There's even a "worst cage" that shows you everything *not* to do. You can also start from scratch and design a cage with the tool, or import a file with an existing design. The tool includes a questionnaire that starts with basics like a car's year, make, and model, and whether it's left- or righthand drive, and continues with other pertinent information like the type of tubing and welds being used, location of bars and gussets, and any dimensional constraints of a car's cockpit. You can also upload photos and have the tool convert them into a 3D model of the cage. Once all the parameters are set, you can select the rulebook you're working with and the tool will point out anything that needs to be changed. ![Worst cage 3D view]() *Frog Racing* The safety score section goes into greater detail about why things don't work, pointing out things like unsafe bar placement that can put too much load on the bars rather than transferring it through the structure as a whole. Unless you're very familiar with roll cage construction, stuff like this can be hard to visualize. Finished designs can be exported as PDFs, and the tool works on iOS and Android mobile browsers. Spend enough time with this in-depth yet accessible tool, and you'll learn everything you need to know about designing roll cages. ## Author Stephen has always been passionate about cars, and managed to turn that passion into a career as a freelance automotive journalist. When he's not handling weekend coverage for The Drive, you can find him looking for a new book to read. ### Author social links [Twitter]() ## More - [Building a Roll Cage For Our $2,000 BMW]() - [People Are Throwing a Fit Over This Funky, Hand-Built ‘Hurricane’ Roll Cage]() - [Now You Can Build Your Own Porsche-Designed Megayacht Online]() - [Get a Free $179 Milwaukee Tire Inflator When You Buy Tool Batteries]() - [Holiday Power Tool Deals You Can Buy Online and Pick Up at Your Local Store]() - [New Porsche Taycan Configurator Is Like a Game You Can Spend Hours On]() - [These Milwaukee Tools Come With Free Batteries at Ace Hardware This Month]() - [Tools Under $10 That You’ll Actually Use: JB Tools Sale]()