I understand that the current safety cage regulations are the current FIA ones and one would suspect that the FIA have done a lot more research into the various issues and designs than all of NZ motorsport, us guys included, have done in total.

Yes there are some like Dave who have been caught out with the regulation changes simply because they did not get their cage approved when they built it, rather they waited until the car was close to completion before going through the process. If we look around the traps you will see a number of cars that are still not completed but have had their cages approved simply becasue the owner understood that there was a cut off date for approval of the old design.

I still think that a representation to the Executive correctly written up with the appropriate evidence to prove that the cage was constructed as part of the car build and that the actual cage it's self was completed prior to the cut off date would go a long way to achieving the desired result. You need to remember that the Technical Dept do not have the authority to change the rules or issue any form of exemption and that there are more ways to kill a cat than drowning the damn thing in cream.

In the case of my car I have the opposite problem, I built my cage just before the information about the changes was released and it is built with the old spec main hoop. Because of this I am unable to use my car overseas and any thought that I had about taking the car to a couple of classic / historic rallies in Australia are now completely out the window as I do not intend pulling the car to bits to replace it. Unfortunately this has also reduced the potential to sell the car off to a Skippy when I get to doddery to drive it too.