did they all build a cage with the side bar that high or did one shop do it i seen pics. of old pro stockers done that way , ad said it was built in canada

The bar will not meet NHRA safety specs, they want it to be just under your arm. You could leave the high one in maybe on the passenger side I guess, but it sure makes it hard to get in and out of that side of the car. A lot of things were done by racers and shops back in the day.

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I often wondered this too. I have seen the high bar on pro stockers as well and wondered how it passed Tech. Bar should ideally be just under the arm pit as described above but I believe the rule is below the shoulder for sure.

If they had a funny car cage around the drivers seat that should pass tech now

I believe Ron Butler race cars did the bars this way. If you look at vintage pics of Butch Leals 65 SS/B that he ran maybe mid to late 70s the cage is the same way. His pro stock arrow may be the same also. Butler did a lot of factory Chrysler stuff before venturing off and doing road race cars which is what he liked. Leals 73-74 pro stock Duster is the same way. His 65 SS/B car as if not already a winning car became the famous Barnett race cars SS/BA from what I'm told.

Correct, was trying to remember the shops name, you hit it on the head. He WAS the go to guy at that time!
Might add, that bar morphed it way to be the top bar on a cage and x bars came about iirr.

Yup, Butler-style. Because, triangles. And I suppose one could argue, weight.
My ex-SS Duster was that way, but I didn't have a problem in tech even though we all knew it was contrary to the rulebook.
Did make entry/exit a little difficult, but it worked.

If that was something that was going to need a cert, I'd be concerned about the thickness as well as the bars in the wrong place.

IIRC, the Butler cars were known to be exceptionally stiff due to the positioning of that bar. As someone has pointed out, that evolved to the current style forward bar with the diagonal lower down.

On ClassRacer they have a post on Paul Rossi' Challenger SS car from back in the day. The car was Butler built and same down bar. I always wondered why it was sold to someone overseas LOL! Probably many more for same reason other than money.

It went overseas because it was so cheated up it couldn't be raced here. Not in SS anyways.

Maybe Paul can chime in on that, he’s on FB a lot now.

The car is likely an Alban Gautier stable car. Not sure if Alban ran this car or one other out of his team. Zeke Maxwell might of built this car. Any bar that runs near the driver must have padding on it.