2011 Rules Updates (Page 2 of 5)

I have emailed Jay and Nick for clarification on the issue.  I think we are going to find that they are looking for the EPA certified, in other words common as chips, fuel container you can get almost anywhere in its unmodified form.

Great...those things take about 2 minutes to drain in unmodified form.  It's a safety and fatigue issue to me - I don't really care about any competitive advantage to filling the tank faster, I just wanted to be able to ditch the stupid funnel and quit holding up 30lbs of gas while I wait for it to trickle out.

Dave, I agree with you. It would be helpful to get a clarification as to what constitutes a modified versus an unmodified can. I think it's common sense to a large part (although there's also a lot of wisdom in the idea that common sense is not always so common). I suspect that the determination of "unmodified" probably comes down to the extent of the modifications. I'd bet that the breather tube probably crosses the line, although a photo probably would be helpful.

I'm a loser on this one too -- we had a great 12 gal fuel rig that rode on a gardening wagon at MSR-H with a deadman handle on it that I'd put up against any 5-gal jug for safety purposes -- but that's clearly outside the "handheld" realm now.

This rule change could be a double-edged sword. If a team were to use those VP-style cans mentioned above they would ostensibly be legal. But if the team were to remove the black cap and pour out the wide neck mouth into a large funnel, that's probably faster than any necked-down fill tube and the puny air return on those cans. But would it be safer or less safe? I dunno. But I think that would be legal under the new rules. And probably faster.

I wonder if the Hunsaker-style 5-gal jug will be legal or not? It's widely used and safe, but I don't see that it has any DOT/SFI/FIA approvals. Nor do the VP Racing jugs.

We need this can of worms de-wormified.

Yeah, but even the VP Racing "5-gal" jugs can hold more than 5-gal. I guess we'll just have to wait on Jay to clarify this. My suspicion is that the "5-gal" limitation was intended as more of a descriptor of the type size that they want rather than a strict limitation on size.

I used one of those new CARB-approved 5-gal cans a couple weeks ago at a campout to refill the genny. I swear it spilled more on the ground than got in the genny tank and it was slower than hell too. What a POS. Those are definitely not what Jay will want us using if it's safety that he wants to keep foremost, and I'm certain that is his intent with this rule change.

Umm, drive like you might be flagged for being unfriendly?
I mean if you piss off ten drivers maybe you earned it... w/o contact or going off.
...and maybe you can get ten drivers to vote for someone pissed you off, too?

We had 163 on-track entrants and a few cars that people didn't like, and a few drivers that were seen to be pretty aggressive the whole weekend - And we had some unusual cars that might have been nicer looking if someone had taken a ball-pien to them...

but ~ there hasn't been a crush/curse out here for some time, and Jay's probably itching to send chris out with the dozer, I'd say...

That said, I peered over the shoulders of the countess when the votes were tallied, there were a few cars that were voted on that I'd overheard "we voted because we couldn't think of a car that was worth crushing" that got more votes than I thought would be got - and then there were a couple of stacks of cars I'd seen doing stupid things like screaming through the pits much faster than 10mph with horns blaring...

Seems a shame that there was interest and no action, and yeah, crushing for just being innovative or fast isn't right. Hence, NEW rules.

Mostly, people aren't voting because no one wants to be responsible for or the recipient of being crushed and losing so much time-investment in a crappy-assed project, and you can't blame them for that!

BUT, if there is a people's curse, and there is - it should have some effect on SOMEONE that has been cursed at - and cursed at by many people, don't-cha think?

It'll all even out.

SInce I'm guessing no one deserves it will remain on the ballot as long as people vote and when they think no one deserves it, it should stop the 1 vote = 10%.  you just have to remember to vote.

In practice, there's always one runaway un-favorite in the People's Curse ballots. Say we get 30 ballots turned in- I guarantee you that 27 of them will be for the same team and the other three will be onesie votes based on single on-track incidents and/or pit-space-hoggery. I also guarantee that the new rules will result in much higher voter participation, so you won't get any bad stuff happening to your team unless you really deserve it.

Eh, we now have to transform the miatastang back into a lame assed miata.

I think the "securely bolted with oem style hardware" part kills us.

You bypassed the 2nd part of that sentence.  The rule reads "Hoods must be securely mounted by OE hardware and/or strong fasteners at all corners."

That 2nd half I would believe leaves the opening for well made hood pins and other securing devices.

Since it's now clear that we're looking at any old commercial, off the shelf gas cans... It's worth noting that there's at least one manufacturer of high-flow (5 gal/45 sec on paper) CARB/EPA cans with dry break, and they aren't all that much more expensive, will mate right up to your fuel cell's filler hole - but will require a $5 adapter to work on an unmodified filler flap.

http://tuffjug.com/index.php?option=com … p;Itemid=1

I repeat: DO NOT try to use these with an unmodified OE filler flap without the $5 adapter they sell on the same site. You'll just make a damned mess and it'll take forever when you finally give up and start using a funnel. We did it and it sucked. Hard.