chassis cert question

[sso2028]

this is lou proto car 2028 in outlaw my chassis is about to expire and i am aware of the new chassis changes with nhra for 2005 regarding unibody cars running faster than 8.5 or 180 . my current cert. is good to 7.50 . now nhra told me if i get my chassis cert right away it will be grandfathered in to 7.50 for 3 more glorious years, but does this mean i will be grandfathered in to the nmra for 3 more years or will i have to update for 2005 regardless what nhra says. nhra told me that decision is entirely up to the sanctioning body. please let me know asap.

thanks
LOU PROTO

[Thom Bates]

Lou,
I'm not sure who told you that it would be grandfathered to the old spec...... but I think they were misinforming you. I'm quite positive that all cars being recertified must meet current specs as of january. We are accepting all existing non-expired chassis' for the limit they were inspected to.

Hope this helps

Thom

[Louie]

HI Lou
I was speaking to a local shop in Ontario Canada and was told if I build my chassis this year and have it certified it will be good for 3 years.

Louie

[sso2028]

thanks for response. but did you ask your inspector what i am asking, yes your chassis will be certified for 3 years but can your type of certification go faster than 8.50 in 2005 that is the question? let me know, thanks. i was told that as long as i get it done before nhra sends any letters out to all the chassis inpectors saying from this point after etc. etc. that the car will be able to go as fast as 7.5 for 3 more years but once that runs out you will have to make the necessary changes to comply with the new saftey rules.

[Dave Bandt]

Lou,

Follow this link. It will answer all your questions. You are not being told accurate info.


http://www.crazyspeed.com/crazyspeed/MessageBoard/showthread.php?s=&threadid=706

[sso2028]

thanks dave for the info, from the looks of it i will have to do a new car and ole blue is gonna be fixed and sent out to big daddys museum lol. the info i got was from not one but 2 different nhra chassis cert guys and wesley from nmra so i don't know who to believe the rules you gave me are crystal clear but they are for fun ford not nmra nmra can make their own rules and decisions as far as all that stuff goes and that is what i need to find out.

[Dave Bandt]

I spoke with our Division 5 inspector on more than one occasion and he agreed word for word with what i posted(George's short summary). In fact, he jokingly told me that he would punch my sticker for anything i want....cuz after this season it's only legal for 8.50 and slower unless the cage is upgraded. .

I have a hard time believing that the NMRA, FFW, or any other sanctioning body will allow anything short of full compliance with the new SFI specs due to the legal repurcussions should something terrible happened...but that's just a hunch.

[sso2028]

dave, i spoke to two more inspectors today from div.1 and i think you were misinformed. as far as the nhra is concerned, inspectors told me that they are still certifying cars to 7.5 until jan. of 2005 and they will in fact be good for 7.50 for three more years of racing in the NHRA,but the question is will nmra except old chassis to run faster than 8.5 after jan. i told the inspectors exactly what you had said about when jan.05 rolls around will they be only good to 8.5 and they both said not unless nhra says so and apparently nhra hasn't delegated anything yet . this decision is totally on the nmra,and they need to give us some clarification as to what they will except as of jan 05 under the current conditions. do the chassis inspectors that you spoke with have something in writing directly from the nhra headquarters that says what you are claiming to be correct information . because my inspectors sure don't?

[Dave Bandt]

In SEVERAL conversations with the Division 5 inspector up here I was told that he would be enforcing the rules as i posted them. If i recall correctly....and i'm about 99.99% sure i do.....he told me he was just down south for training on the new chassis rules (in Topeka I think) and what he had been told was exactly what i posted. He informed me that he would be enforcing the rules exactly how George had laid them out in his post...at least in our area. At this point, the only thing that i am certain about is that the mass confusion regarding the SFI rules is not just amongst us racers.

I will be getting my cage certified on Friday....dyno session has been postponed another week.....and will talk to him in more depth about this again. But based on our past conversations, i'm sure he's just gonna say the same thing again.

[Dave Bandt]

Oh yeah....I've been talking with Dave Zimmerman a lot lately about doing a new chassis and he has said the same thing. He has copies of all the new spec's and has interpreted them the same way as my local inspector.

[Mike Galimi]

Typical. More confusion. I had heard like Lou that the cars are good for what their tag is stamped. When it expires then you get the new tag.

Lou, my opinion is that if the tag is not expired then why wouldn't NMRA accept it?

[sso2028]

hey mike whats up? just so that there is no confusion here with anybody i'm not trying to minipulate the rulebook, but just looking for some rock solid clarification of what the nmra is gonna except after jan of 2005. now like i said nhra says they will have to except old chassis tags but if nmra chooses not to, that is their venue. anotherwords i don't want to show up next year assuming, i just want a clear rock solid answer thats all and nobody has given me one yet from nmra. by the way we are fixing the car as we speak its a shame what happened down in fl. i really think we had a shot to go well into the seven second zone, we were just starting to tune it up a little,and also read my post in the lounge and voice your opinion.

[Thom Bates]

Until a decision different from what I was originally told comes down from James or Charlie, who are the only ones in the NMRA who can make that decision, we will accept any chassis for what it was originally tagged for, provided it is not expired.

Thom Bates

[Draggin3]

how is the NMRA going to make a ruling if they can't like you get a straight answer from the NHRA. I've been told from the beginning of this year that this is the last year for the old cert meaning that if you don't update your 7.5 to 9.99 cert don't plan on running faster than 8.5 in 2005 no matter when your current cert expires.

[sso2028]

so what you are saying is you have to wait until we here from james or charlie on this and how long before we get a direct answer? and therefore as far as NHRA IS CONCERNED ABOUT THE OLDER TAGS you and i are on the same page? because NHRA told me i can race their events next year 05 with my existing tag that would be recertified to 7.5 .

[sso2028]

you just said we are accepting any chassis for what it was originally tagged for. meaning what? is that only till jan 05 then you are only good to 8.5. from that point after.
a simple yes or no will do. or is this what you are waiting for from james and charlie? please do not take this as critisizm i just want some clarification that is all thank you.

[Thom Bates]

I thought I was very clear:

"Until a decision different from what I was originally told"....... "we will accept any chassis for what it was originally tagged for, provided it is not expired."

There is no date.... the tag determines the date to which we will not accept it for what it was originally tagged. Currently chassis tags are good for three years from the punch date.

Thom

[sso2028]

you have now answered my question, i am getting my chassis in my current outlaw car recertified in about a month and my tag will be good to 7.5 for three more years so if i show up next spring with the same ride based on what i'm telling you and based on what your telling me, there will not be any problems with me going faster than 8.50 in outlaw? i understand that after this last certification is up that the car will have to be brought up to current sfi specs or it will have to be slowed down. so after all this my case in point is any cars getting re certified before jan of 05 will be grandfathered in to the time and speed limit that their certification says on their sticker regardless what the new specs
are.

[Dave Bandt]

Lou,

I just got back from getting mine recertified. The inspector seemed to be back pedaling on what he had told me about a month ago. He did say that he has a memo from NHRA stating that NOBODY is to be allowed to recertifiy their car early in order to circumvent the new SFI rules. I got a sticker good to 7.50 with no funny car cage. He could not guarantee when the sticker was good to. Like i said before......the confusion is not just amongst us. BTW, i called NHRA on Thursday and was told that i didn't have to worry about meeting the new specs until my tag expired in 3 years. That's good news...as it gives me plenty of time to get a new car built. But to be honest with you, it wouldn't surprise me one bit to have this change again.

[sso2028]

dave, this is full anarchy isn't it? i can honestly say that when and if i build a new car it will be for another organization,unless nmra changes their rules. i started with nmra and i love sso but the way the rules are structured is totally rediculous to try to build a car for this class with the stock floor and stock frame rails. there is no reason at all for that. these cars are long past being anything resembling a street car. why still the oem glass,the windows are all covered up with stickers any way is anybody gonna notice? yet you can have a lexan rear window why not the rest? you don't see pro stocks with glass windshields and side windows and stock floors and frame rails. and those are supposed to resemble the cars we drive. we are running as fast as the pro cars used to with these obtuse rules. and i think the nmra staff knows this and they will ultimately have to come to their senses and allow normal back halfed cars with small tires of course into the class for the class to survive. the small tire and the weight is what keeps this class running strong and interesting, not the fact that they have stock floors and frame rails that you can't even see . the way i see it the cars would be way easier to build and way safer simply due to the construction of the car . and i think any chassis builder would agree with me. everybody says look what happened to pro or super street in nmca those are whole different animals with LARGE TIRES.

[sam sso2077]

I got my chassis recertified in oct. or nov of 2003. The sticker said it was good to 7.50 without any mention of wording for a funny car cage. The inspector said it would be good for the next three years.

[Mike Galimi]

Lou, Super Street used to run real 10.5-inch slicks before Ws came in and then back-half cars and we know the rest of it.

At least your car is good for 3 more years. Another point is that updating these cars has become more mainstream than it once was. Remember when Fest and Baer had 25.1 cars and everyone said no way it is impossible to do?

[RICH JELINEK]

Just looking and listening.............as I'll be facing all of this confusion very soon.

[NMRAMelissa]

Lou:

Thanks for your question. I can't answer your chassis inquires, but you can get them answered by Thom Bates or Mike Bruns by e-mailing them directly. I know they don't read every question on here.

We have a very successful SSO class, and we want to make sure that the class can still be successful under the NHRA existing chassis guidelines.

Thanks for posting, please don't hesistate to contact me with any questions.

Melissa

[Windsor377]

Thanks folks. This has been very helpful for me. For the first time I think a have a handle on this.