I know this won't affect a lot of you guys here, but I'm sure there are some it will. The NHRA, as of March, has come down with a new rule requiring any driver of a car with a AFTERMARKET turbo, supercharger, or nitrous system to have a fire jacket meeting at least SFI 3.2A/1 certification. They are considering changing the rule to include factory kits that have been upgraded as well but for now it's is just for AFTERMARKET units.

Once again this is just a friendly heads-up from a fellow racer. Your track may not enforce this new rule but I know my local NHRA track requires it for their bracket series.

 

Great info, very good to know. So that means that I might need the jacket with just the pulley swap one day?

 

Some day you might. You can thank all the morons who build their own kits and don't take the time to make sure everything is tested and working right before they go out. When more and more guys build their own **** and it breaks more and more NHRA makes rules to stop that. They'd rather have an excess of rules than one death or injury.

On a side note, as mentioned by Karo which reminded me, there is a new rule requiring engine diapers on any NON-factory forced induction car currently. To my knowledge, and according to my tech guy, the NHRA is leaving it up to the tracks for sportsman level races but all pro classes require it currently. There is a rumor that ALL FI cars will be required to have them in the next 1-3 years. I hope this doesn't happen because not everyone can, or will want to, spend $300+ to get an engine diaper so they can race on the track. I think we'll see more and more tuners going back to the streets if that rule comes down especially in the sportsman ranks.

 

they DO enforce that rule at Englishtown. but most of the tech guys arent gonna check if you have a smaller pulley. or if you are running on the hit, just make sure you hide it really good. jackets are around 80 bucks for the cheapest ive seen.

 

umm, just curious, what exactly is an engine jacket? I haven't heard of this new rule.

I have, however, heard that IIRC, IHRA is making a lot of new rules as well, making certain helmits not allowed, and making other requirements, but I can't really remember all of them at the moment.

One thing that I hate is that any sub-12 sec cars require a full roll cage...even if it's only a FWD....I don't think it is necessary for a FWD car, at least I've never heard of one somehow managing to roll...

 

the tech guys usually don't bust domestic drivers...they go after all the imports. When my fiance worked there, if one of the workers pissed off the boss, their punishment was having to work at Honda day...

 

not an engine jacket, you have to buy a fire jacket. its the top half of a racing suit

 

An engine diaper is a device that straps to the engine and is made of ballistic materials and lined with padding to catch and absorb oil, debris, coolant, and whatever other fun stuff your car shoots out when it blows up. It's a way of keeping the **** off the track and limiting clean up times. They run about $300 on the LOW end.

 

I think it is a very good rule only because yeah you are a street car but **** happens and nothing is worse then being stuck in a car when its on fire seen it happen not good at all very good rule. just my two cents

 

The jacket rule I don't mind AT ALL. It's the diaper rule that has me a little miffed. You force a kid to spend $300+ to get the honor to spend another $25-50 to race (lost yet) and a lot of them will choose the streets instead. I know if I wasn't so focused on moving up the ranks a rule like that would push me back towards the streets and make them look a lot more tempting.