Doors/Sheet Metal Chopdown Rule Updates? (Page 4 of 5)

I clicked on the rules, 2011 updates and nothing was listed about doors or crush zones or anything..
Is that yet to be published?  or not going to be published?  or not going to happen?  or I don't know how to click on something?

Thanks Judge John!

We need horses now?  Do we need them in the car or mounted on the outside.

Oh I think with that substantial roll cage you will have no problems!!!

The horses are under the hood.

Ok, I read the 2011 rules and I'm still stumped on this subject....

Rules now say you need doors and the OE hood and that OE crush structure must be intact.

This seems to point directly towards stopping people from shrinking cars, chopping up unibody components, and basically showing up with A-mod racecars. No complaints here.

Where I'm stumped is knowing what modifications are allowed to the OE hoods and doors.

Is the door's inner skin is considered "crush structure" and therefore can not be modified/gutted? We wanted to go with Nascar style door bars for more room but obviously that's out if you need the inner skin.

In line with this, what modifications are allowed of hood. Can we skin the inside of the hood? Can we cut vents? Can I cut a giant 12" cowel into the hood if I cut out the inner skin?

Am I the only one wondering these same things?

I understand there are 2 incidents that likely prompted this change.  I applaud the guys for trying to avoid a dangerous situation based upon experience.

Re: removing panels, there comes a point where your car is effectively an open wheel car with minimal structure around the wheel wells. We all know what happens when open wheel cars touch tires, and I believe an incident where a car landed on its roof after tire contact with injury prompted this.  I don't know the details on it.

I'm co-owner of the CRX destroyed by the TARP MR2 in Chicago, so I can speak to that.  The issue here was the lack of a crush zone in the MR2, so our car absorbed all the energy of impact.  Had our car also been designed to bypass the crumple zones it would have been the drivers and their necks absorbing the energy, hence the need for a crumple zone.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAt_wq0hzVc

It does not.  OE bumpers are not required.

There is a difference between running without any bumper and running without an OE bumper. The intent of the rule is to enhance safety; the practical effect is to make the cut-down car illegal.

You could make an argument that any modification to any body panel on the car ahead of the firewall and behind the trunk wall (particularly on a unibody car) reduces the effectiveness of the crush structure. But the intent of the rule was not to eliminate changes to body panels -- it was to enhance safety by preventing folks from cutting down their frame rails and making a cut-down car. But from a rules-writing perspective, you can't just say "no cut frame rails" because some cars don't have "frame rails." So the crush structure language was used instead because every car has crush structure.

My conclusion is the same as Dave's: OE bumpers are not required. I would go slightly further and say that _a_ bumper is a smart idea and will probably be required to pass tech.

IIRC, the Duphine spent the first half of Saturday adding a bumper.

Bingo!   We have a winner!      Let's not get all theoretical Smokey Yunick  on this.     "so if the alien space ship we acquired has anti-matter crush zones will that be ok?"           You wouldn't believe the e-mails I've been getting.     We did not mention bumpers. We don't want you to hack the front and back off of your car and we'd like to see some side protection, I.E. doors....    You can skin, weld, strip, dance on, or make love to your doors, just leave them on the car.   We are not counting hatches or rear doors on wagons as doors.. we're interested in side protection.    A car may, however, require a hatch to be safe, usually because of fuel cell/tank location and fuel firewall.   

    Please don't over think this...     If you have a specific question, e-mail me and ask, try to send pics...   

     -John