Weight Limits

Are you asking about the overall upper limit or the weight that dictates your roll cage tubing size?

If it's roll cage tubing and you think you'll be near the cutoff, just use the bigger stuff and never worry about it.

If it's the upper weight limit, email HQ and talk to them about it. Better to discuss now rather then at tech on Friday.

Nobody weighs your car at the track. Think of it more as an eyeball test. If you bring some huge boat that looks like a huge boat, you may or may not be told you are not allowed to race it out of concerns for participant safety.

If you have a Kevin James type of car, don't worry about it too much. (Especially if you do a Clerks theme or if at least everyone on the team wears hockey jersey's through tech)

The organizers and most of the judges are true "Car People". They generally will know if your car is close to running afoul of the weight guidelines when they see it.

And of course as the others have suggested, it's always best to ask ahead of time before you invest a bunch of time and money into prepping something that is borderline to the letter of the rules as they are written. And to "thumbs up" what TheEngineer has said about roll cage tubing size: Just put the bigger stuff in. You wouldn't want to find yourself in a situation where you are regretting having used undersized cage tubing.

That doesn't eliminate the need for a waiver for anything that is originally overweight:

As Spank noted, the cars aren't weighed at the track. If there's a serious question about a vehicle, you'll be in a far better position if you've already gotten a waiver and can demonstrate that you've removed a lot of weight. The weight reduction alone may or may not satisfy tech, so why risk it? Besides, while discussing a waiver with HQ you're likely to get some specific pointers about what counts as "good" weight reduction as opposed to "bad" (such as cutting out parts of the crush structure), which is another example of a conversation not to have for the first time while already in line for tech inspection. HQ would much rather deal with all of these issues well in advance, so by all means ask for the waiver and for advice on what to do to make them happy with the vehicle.

Besides, if they just flat say "no" to something, as they did once to me, it's better to learn that as early as possible. In my case it was before I went back to buy it, so that worked out quite well compared to other possible outcomes.

To the OP: Shoot an email to Jay (Jay@24hoursoflemons.com) and John Pagel (Pagel@24hoursoflemons.com) asking about your specific car. cc me (eric@24hoursoflemons.com) on it, too, just because I want to know what it is.

The Rollers both had weight waivers.The twin-engined Eldo had a weight waiver.

The Lemontarians' mid-1980s Fleetwood is actually (well) under the weight limit and so too is the '59 Bonneville that ran at Buttonwillow. Almost all passenger cars outside of the weight limit would fall either into a bloated period of luxury and full-size cars from 1955-1979 or into the supremely overbuilt very-late-model stuff (Think Dodge Charger, which is near the weight limit). Full-size trucks and SUVs would also potentially be problematic.

no kidding on the Charger, the Challenger is a wide load too.  A cool build would be a 2 door 2wd 4.0l jeep cheeorkee w/ a 5 speed.

We use 1.75" x .120" in every build, no matter the vehicle weight.  I've never found myself on track wishing I'd used lighter cage material...

The facelifted Chargers (2011 to present, I think) are 4,500 pounds curb weight with a V8. Just insane. Earlier generation that has started to show up in Lemons is about 30 pounds shy of the weight limit fully optioned with the Hemi.

For us it is as simple as consistency.  We have done...6 cages now (4 for us) and once you are set up for 1.75" x .120, you can do any car and "spare" tube can be used to modify any car.  Same bender die, same holesaw for notching, etc.  Ad to that minor conveniece in welding to spreader plates with the same thickness and there really was no question for us.

Mixing units, maybe they mean 45mm dia x 1.2mm wall, but Charleston is quite far from Canada.

lol, that makes more sense, 1/8th inch is 3.2mm.