Joe just buy a good harrness.... as for a helmet i ran scca for years with a street bike helmet to a national level too!!!!! joe hit up brockton cycles and get a good one not the $99 specials like every one gets...i would spend 400+ to get a good rated helmet... plus if you need a harness for weds stop by i will let you use mine i got brand new set.....

 

honestly, you might be fine with the M helmet now, but its coming down the pipeline so why not spend the little extra for the correct helmet anyway right? i had to make the same decision last september and everyone i know who does A-X or road racing said get the SA so you know your good, other than hoping and getting kicked out

 

Exactly I just wanna be done with having to re-do stuff. I sure as heck dont wanna buy a helmet twice so I wanna get a really good one, once and not have to worry about tech anywhere. I hate this waiting game seeing if I'm gonna pass tech. I'm gonna go work on the car now and check to see how much of the factory belts I have left and see if one harness is still good. I know one is out of date the other may still be good.

 

I think was Noyzee was saying was even if my harness is good time wise I am only running the lap belt. I dont have a roll bar or harness bar so I wouldent be able to run the rest of the harness anyway.

 

Hi Call the track, ask for the tech director tell him what you got and ask him whats mandatory for your car to be legal.There's nothing more agravating than traveling there and getting shot down by the tech department.
Dont N.E. go by I.H.R.A. rules?
good luck and stay safe.

 

yes NED goes by IHRA rules... the name of the tech director is Buddy...ask for him... or if u want u can post all ur questions on www.northeastdragracing.com in the new england dragway section and buddy will get back to u directly on there....

tony

 

heres the thing, building a car towards racing, the best thing to do is get a local rule book. NED is IHRA the book is like $5 or join IHRA and you get the book, updates etc etc etc. then any question you have is right in your hands. i built my car with the book infront of me. i went in for my ATI i handed them the sheet with all my sfi #'s right on it HAD all my safty stuff right there, had my cage cirt done etc etc etc. they had my ati done in 5 minits with buddy telling me this was one of the best preped 8.50 car he had ever seen, said i need nothing and he was impressed. done right, done once

 

 

The harnesses were made mar 2006... ****


But theres really nothing left of the factory belts.

Boostntbs I may need to take you up on that.. but wednesdy isnt gonna work anyway. The driveshaft threw a weight tonight and is no longer balanced.

 

if you are in the 12's the harness can be more then 2 years old. buddy told me this last year. he said when you belts are up sell them to someone with a 12.00 or slower car. they are ok to run for them.

 

I sent an email to Joe Lombardo who is the track/general manager and told him about my setup including the seat belts and he said.

"Thanks for the detailed photos. From what I can see the setup looks good. Make sure your alternator is wired into the master disconnect switch. This ensures everything shuts off immediately. You can use a Sharpie, but mark both the "ON" and "OFF" positions."

Joe Lombardo
Track/General Manager
New England Dragway, Inc.

 

Good news because I want to see it go. Post up when your going.

 

thats with lap belts?

 

Yeah this was my exact message to him

Hi, my name is Josh and I just got done building a car after 3 years of work and I'de love to come down on wednesday or friday and get some shakedown runs but I have been going back and forth now with my friends and other people who run at the track to see if the car is totally legal. I think I've covered all the bases but there seems to be varrying views of what is acceptable and what is not acceptable. I've also gone through your webiste and the rule book and neither seem to give me an exact answer.

It is an 89 Mazda Rx7 with a fuel cell and rear mounted battery. I mounted the cell under the car with 3/8 steel rods and 1/8th in flat stock. I then cut a hole in the floor just big enough to fill the cell from the top.

Here is a picture of what I meen
http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/8718/dsc00628m.jpg

In that picture you can also see I am missing a panel (that used to cover the stock fuel pump assembly) which will be in place by the time I get to the track. You can also see I am running an NHRA approved battery box with vent tube out of the passenger compartment. You can all see the roll over vent of the fuel cell at the bottom of the pic where the 180 degree blue AN fitting is.

This is the fuel cell from underneath
http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/6277/dsc00629w.jpg


This is my emergency shutoff switch I am running. It does kill the car effectivly but I know it needs to be labeled. Is it alright if I take a sharpie and write "off" with an arrow on my license plate indicating the direction to turn the car off.

http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/7735/dsc00630s.jpg


Other than that a heated item of debate is my seatbelt setup. The factory seatbelts were junk so I got a set of simpson harnesses and I am running just the lap belts. I am not running the whole harness because the car does not have a roll bar or harness bar. The car should only run 13s, maybe 12s if I'm lucky. I will be running nitto 555R DOT drag radials as well which I believe meens I dont need a driveshaft loop either.

All other safety items and lights work the clutch safety switch works the lights work, the car passed mass state inspection with flying colors.

I guess the main question is, is my emergency shutdown switch ok where it is and is it ok if I label it with a sharpie and is running lapbelts ok for the times I plan to run?

I know your very busy so thanks in advance for any advice. I just dont want to make the 2+ hour drive just to be turned away.

Hope to see you at the track
-Josh

I can see he also CC'd the message to Dan Mistretta and Buddy Scurto which I am pretty sure are any of the 3 people who would actually look at my car. So if I print out the email and bring it with me, it should remind them.

Okay so I know the car will eventually should run faster than 13s/12s but with me driving its gonna be a while before I get to the full potential of the car.

 

wow, you better bring that and his reply with you just to cover your ***. Joe doesnt tech and if one of the kids in tech give you an issue, show them the info you have

 

Buddy is the tech director, and he's good at getting back to you the answers you need.

 

i was thinking the same thing noyzee said... better bring a copy...

 

As Brad said bring that email, because you should not have gotten a mass inspection sticker with those seatbelts. They are not DOT approved, the only harness that is dot approved is the schroth ones.

 

Just wanted to fill you guys in. Buddy said that as long as the lap belts are in good shape and I dont run faster than 11.49 I'm good to go.

Just wanted to post cause there seems to be some confusion on running lap belts even with the more experienced guys.

Thanks for the help. As far as I know I'm totally legal at this point.

Hopefully it keeps warming up I seem to be getting more and more traction on the street every day it gets warmer

 

when are you going up to the dragway? If you go up on a saturday ill roll up with you. I cant go wednesdays or fridays cuz I get out of work at 5:30.