Mats tech inspection

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Shadow

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Been on the mats website to try to get some detailed info about tech inspection for different classes. They mentioned no leaking fluids and check your brakes and tires and also referenced checking dates on the seat belts. One question I have is does the date codes for the seat belts matter if you're in a 14 or 15 second car? What about if you are in the street class with original 45 year old seat belts? I have several different cars i could take. My big block duster has no inner fenders, does that disqualify that car?
So those are my first two questions, about when seat belt date codes become relevant (what e.t.), and no inner fenders.
 
i dont think they care about the inner fender wells, they follow the nhra tech guidelines to the T
 
Factory belts in a hardtop car are good to 11.50 et.
 
crackedback said:
Factory belts in a hardtop car are good to 11.50 et.
Click to expand...

Yup. The dates are only for aftermarket belts that are required at 11.49 or faster. Make sure your helmut has a Snell rating that's recent, and that the usual safety stuff is good (battery hold down, fuel lines not 100% rubber, leaks, etc, and make sure you have some sort of catch can for the radiator overflow.
 
The big block duster that I would like to take has ten year old aftermarket belts and no inner fenders. Got the leaks, catch can, and battery hold downs covered. I'm a 55 year old beginner, the car with an experienced driver would probably run 12s or 13s but I would probably be lucky to get high 13s or in the 14 second range. Never been down a drag strip even one time. So I don't know how critical they are with tech, it seems I remember reading in the rule book that inner fenders were required
 
There is no rule regarding belt age for hardtop cars slower than 11.50. The tech guys should be up to date on the rules. If they ask, say the car doesn't run 11.50 or better. If they say it doesn't matter, you may have a problem. There have been people that got letters from nhra stating how the rule should be applied. It has been that cars running slower than 11.50 are not subject to the 2 year seat belt rule when aftermarket belts are in the car.

If you do have an issue, I'd get on the phone with nhra and have them clear it up.

I've had this discussion with a tech guy and my other favorite is the window net in a car with a cage.

Me - Car doesn't run 9.99 or faster so it doesn't need a cage or a net.
tech - It has a cage it needs a net.
Me - cage is only required at 9.99 or faster, it doesn't run 9's so a roll bar is only required. The cage is extra safety beyond the rules for the cars ET.
tech - when you have a cage it needs a net...

He was wrong and we got a letter from corporate, but, it would be nice if they would apply the et based rules correctly. Chicken or the egg. LOL
 
Shadow said:
The big block duster that I would like to take has ten year old aftermarket belts and no inner fenders. Got the leaks, catch can, and battery hold downs covered. I'm a 55 year old beginner, the car with an experienced driver would probably run 12s or 13s but I would probably be lucky to get high 13s or in the 14 second range. Never been down a drag strip even one time. So I don't know how critical they are with tech, it seems I remember reading in the rule book that inner fenders were required
Click to expand...
If u don't have a roll bar in the car then your old belts are ok...make sure u got a catch can for radiator. ..battery bolts are 3/8s. Long wheel stud if u have slicks.
worst case they will tell u before next race
 
I could see where they could have an issue with the aged belts, and I would understand, no roll cage in car now. I would just hate to trailer my car 600 mile round trip to be told I can't run it so I want to fix the issues before I go or take a street car and run that class. I'm tired of watching everyone else race, especially when I have a few different cars I could take, but trailer only holds one car so I want to make the right choice.
 
We had a roll bar in the car, and outdated harness with the tags removed. Car was running low 13's and we didn't have a problem... not saying some tech guy won't get on his high horse... Both of our cars that we had cages installed in, we put in the nets just to rid of the aforementioned headache.
 
what ever you do, do not run any coolant in your system. last time i was there they made me drain it out and run distilled water. they saw that i had green coolant in my overflow and threw a fit
 
never had a problem at LVMS with non roll bar car...slower then 11.50 and old belts....the tech guys there know that they are not required ....

Went we 1st started running the 71 Duster...it was running 11.70 ...no roll bar...and old belts..no problem
 
Sounds encouraging,thanks for the tipon the helmet with a recent date on it. All my helmets are ancient sounds like seat belts will be ok. Is a fire extinguisher required to be in the car?
 
fire extinguisher is up to you.... just as long as it's secure which usually means you won't be able to get it out in any reasonable amount of time.

I think you'll be "ok" for tech....
 
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