Modding chassis on my FSAE (HELP!)

[spitfun]

Okay guys,I bought this earlier in the year and the problem is I am too fat to drive it-my belly hits the steering wheel! I need to lose weight (doubtful) or sit more upright in the car. My question for all you engineers out there is can I cut out the two bars above my shoulders and be ok? I talked to a couple guys at an auto-x that were FSAE engineers and they said it should be ok because of the lower points the chassis is welded together at and triangulated. What do you think? I need to do this or sell the car so I really need some advice here... BTW,this is the old Georgia Tech car from 2009...Thanks Rich

[Adam Farabaugh]

Structurally, those tubes look nearly useless and appear to have been an afterthought, for what reason I can't guess.

One of the rules of thumbs for structures is that you want material in tension and compression, not in bending. Those tubes have a kink in them near the front roll hoop, and at the main roll hoop they don't come close to meeting at a node, and any small load they can handle must go through bending as well. That is to say, they don't do much.

You should absolutely be careful that in your seating position your head is inside the chassis envelope!