The Official 2010 Rules Update Kvetching Post (Page 1 of 3)

I think most of the rules make sense though there are some cars/trucks with gas tanks bigger than 24 gallons from the factory that would have to go to a smaller fuel cell as their stock tanks would not be legal.

I think the fender rule might give some CRX driving teams problems, heh.

Am I reading the "people's curse award correctly; If there are more un-returned ballots than the greatest number of ballots applied towards one car; then no one gets the curse?

Some clarification on the fender rule would be helpful.  I know of a certain FX-16 that sort of has fenders, assuming a couple strips of rusted out metal counts.  I read, "All cars must have fenders.  Duh." two ways:

1: All cars must have some form of cover over the tires to keep rocks and other assorted debris from being flung at other cars, spectators, track workers, etc.

2: You may not remove the original fender from the car.  Period.

^ Which one is it?  And how much of what type of alcohol would it take for #1 to be the accepted interpretation?

I'm looking forward to be rules prohibiting removal of any exterior body panels.  IMO, if your car was originally a hardtop you shouldn't be allowed to cut-off the roof, if the car came with 4 doors, all of them should still be in place, etc.  Before long people will be rolling with panels at all, just tubing unless the rules are changed.  Yes, I know I'm in the minority on this since many teams have hacked off doors and body panels and want their cars to remain that way.

It was an air hammer, Beavis.

Coupla reasons.

First, we had absolutely no problem with licensed SCCA/NASA/etc (we'll call them "ABCD") drivers who had an up-to-date license on hand. Problem was, the percentage of guys who actually delivered on that promise was pretty low. There was always a "I have a license, they haven't shipped me the card yet," or "An ABCD card is exactly the same as an EFGH card, why won't you take it?" Even giving those guys the benefit of the doubt put us in a tough situation--worst-case, if there was an on-track incident, and we were asked about a specific driver's license status, we would have felt VERY uncomfortable saying "The guy told us he had a license, they just hadn't shipped him the card yet."

Second, the whole process of having that discussion always brought the license line to a grinding halt. We felt that was unfair to the guys who paid their fifty bucks and didn't have any asterisks next to their name.

In short, the ABCD guy who brought their up-to-date hard card to every race is in fact getting screwed by the new rule. But, like I said, that's a really low percentage. Whether that breakdown was the fault of individual drivers or the sanctioning bodies--that wasn't something we wanted to make into our concern.

(As a final note, most of the licensed drivers who took issue with the $50 fee weren't as concerned with the money as they were with us not recognizing their Fangio-like status of being a ABCD-trained Club Racer. Never mind the fact that ABCD drivers cause as many--likely MORE--on-track incidents than your crew chief's sister-in-law who has never driven on track and just learned how to drive stick last Tuesday. Just sayin.')

The pending angels-on-a-pinhead discussion of what is/isn't a fender speaks directly to why the SCCA/NASA/etc end up having voluminous rulesets, and exactly what most of us agree we want Lemons to avoid.

Aren't fenders kind of like what Justice Potter Stewart said when asked to define hard-core pr0n: I know it when I see it? I suspect that's the judging standard that comes into play most of the time at Lemons.

Indeed

I'm not sure what all the fender drama is about.  My fenders are rusty and I hammered flares into them.  What's left of them are still fenders.

The 28 gallon fuel tank limit is killing my station wagon plans. 

I was sealing up the back end with the fancy sticks to all duct tape and silicone, throwing in a temperpedic mattress I acquired from NASA for anti-slosh foam and making a filler which uses a 20" Dub cap for a gas cap.

Regarding the license, SCCA makes NASA guys buy a license and Vice Versa and it costs more than $50 a year.

It would be nice to have something a little more formal for a License than a business card though.

For that matter, assigning everyone a license number and having them in a database with our info would be nice.  Then we if could just put our license numbers in on the registration page and be done with it, that would be really nice.

ankle bracelets seem to be popular at this time of year. 

Speaking as a guy who has showed up with his license every time, it sounds like a money grab to me.

I'd rather Lemons just be up front about price gouging, add $50 to the $100 per driver fee, and be done with it.