This is something I've been thinking about for a while but haven't done anything about it.

This is specifically about the roll cage rule. The roll cage rule (5pt harness, fire suit and a 6pt roll cage, correct me if I've forgotten the specifics) used to be on anything from 11.99 and under. It now stands at 11.49.

My problem is this; we drive far away and pay to race at drag strips to respect the rules of the road and keep the public roadways safe. We're going out of our way to make for a safer experience when testing and enjoying our cars. Most tracks follow NHRA rules and NHRA states that at 11.49 and under, our cars are safer with a roll cage.

While that may be true in the isolated situation of running the car at a drag strip, the times have drastically changed and there are many many street cars running 11.49 and under. Essentially, the NHRA is forcing us to put unsafe 'safety' equipment into our cars that we drive on the street so that for the <.01% of mileage that we are actually out on the track, it is safer.

So, once your car is faster than 11.49 you have two bad options. 1: Race on the street. 2: Install a roll cage into your car and make it a dangerous vehicle to drive without a helmet. Because of those two poor options, I haven't drag raced my car in years.

We have 3000+lb four cylinder, four door, five passenger vehicles that are running under that time with minimal modification and in many cases on the stock Mitsubishi turbo. These cars break the 11.49 mark all the while hardly breaking traction, even in first gear.

Off of the top of my head, here are some cars that run under this time straight off of the showroom floor.

Nissan GTR
Corvette ZR1/Z06
Viper ACR/SRT10
Bugatti Veyron
Ferrari 599, 458, 430 Scuderia
Lamborghini LP670, LP560-2, LP640
Porsche 911 Turbo, Carrera GT, GT2,
Audi R8 V10
Ford GT
Mercedes SLR

Well you get the point. Those cars are stock, they don't need and will not likely ever receive a roll cage. Most people at the track mod their cars and can bust the 11.49 time in street cars that shouldn't have cages too.



Bottom line here is that NHRA should be changing their rules. At once they made sense but the times are changing rapidly, technology is expanding exponentially and our cars are becoming faster and safer than ever before at these levels of speed. We are being kicked out of the tracks and being forced to make our street cars unsafe for the street.

If you feel like me, speak up, re-post this and share your voice.

This is what I suggest. Keep the rules the same for helmets and firesuits. Make the cage rule 11.0 for RWD and FWD with airbags. Cars with AWD should have a more lenient rule set for E.T., I'd say 10.50 (also with airbags). The MPH rule should also be bumped to 140 IF the car has properly functioning disc brakes on all corners and airbags.

Thanks,

Justin Rush

 

I agree, people with stock or lightly modded ZR1's, Z06 Vipers can run all day long while the track guys turn a blind eye and let them do whatever, just don't try it in a GTR EVO or other imports

 

I hear yeah man. They should redo the rules. What the steps for a protest on this? It seems like they don't relook at the rules and change them all that much. It's like they copy and paste the rules each year for their safety book. They must have a 5 year old kid do that for them each year sence copy and paste button on the computer is really easy to do. Lol

 

110% agree!!

 

i agree...it sucks..even if they move it to 11.0 we are all still screwed..it should be race at your own risk anyways...you sign a damn waiver...you cant sue them so who cares..

if you want to go 9s with no cage and you crash and die...thats your own damn fault!

 

there are tons of people that feel the way we do but what are the proper steps to take action i live in md and there are 3 tracks mir budds creek host huge events and then two smaller ones mir is very strict on there rules as where the other two dont even pop my hood when i go to tech in. the owner of mir son jason miller is on most of the fourms hes always on honda-tech anyway and he puts on plenty of events for us import guys and redoes the rules to keep things competitive for events like imports vs domestics hes a good guy somebody should take the time to email him and get a track owners thoughts maybe there is a reason that we havent thought about just trying to look at it from both sides.

jmiller@mirdrag.com

 

just to throw this out there to there was a porsche in the factory shootout class at imports vs domestics that went 10.50s at 130 two years ago thats stock turbos and everything cars are always going to get faster .

 

I always thought the NHRA should go **** themselves with their up tight rules that they put on cars with a 50+ year or more technology difference. Our cars are 15 times safer then old school muscle cars from the 50's to 90's.

 

I also agree with this.

My current plan would be to tell tech that I don't know what time I am going to run. If it happens to be lower than 11.49, I hope that they don't kick me out.

If they do kick me out, I'll wait 2 weeks and go back and hopefully they won't remember me and I'll run again. Unfortunately, this will only work for so long until they do remember.

Anytime anyone wants to race me, I always say well let's go to the track. It's safer, no distractions etc. If they won't let me race anymore, what's a guy to do?

I really don't want to put a cage in my car for the occasional Wednesday night drag race sessions. I love driving it on the street.



-Bink

 

Yea, I am a victim of this rule. I have watched a 03 cobra in the other lane running sub 11.49's trapping 130, and a few vettes running similar. Same track I get called out for running right around the 11.49 mark at 124-125 all day.

 

100% agree....the last time I saw this was at one of the tapping of PINKS, where a Subby was running in the 11's and when he went to line up against the full-blown Camaro, the tech of the show told Christensen that the Subby had no roll-bar...and he was kicked out.

And the worst part is they wont even accept an Autopower roll bar.

 

Here is an idea. Vinyl wrap your car I different color. They will never know. Unless they know your face. Then you can wear a fake mustache and beard.

 

Good to hear this guys. Repost it and lets keep this thread going!

 

HAHA! Awesome idea


-Bink

 

I also feel the same way as you boltz. Totally unnecessary, however tracks by us do not strictly enforce it even tho they are nhra. For example Great Lakes Dragaway hosts thier "Real Street Drag" event to keep streetracers off the the street and on the track, an they are very lenient about rules. Ive gone bottom 11s with no prob and Joey (Evosick) even went 9.1 with no cage. Rules are rules...but they are ment to be broken