First tech inspection

[Wayne]

Think back to your very first tech inspection. What was it like?

In my case, I had spent about one year building the car. This car had a previously issued log book. I was moving the car up a class and had made many changes/improvements. I agonized over making sure EVERYTHING was spot-on legal and safe. I spent many hours reading, and re-reading the gcr. On several occasions I was accused by existing racers of being way to anal about the whole thing. I spent much money and time doing a very high quality job of building this car. Heck, even my decals were held on with grade 8 fasteners. http://Forum.ImprovedTouring.com/it/smile.gif I was convinced the tech inspector would be highly impressed, and would find nothing wrong with my pride and joy.

So then the day finally came for my first tech inspection, and I nervously rolled the car up to the inspection lane. The chief of tech walked over, and I said, "Good morning sir". This apparently was the wrong thing to say as he responded with, "Sir! You must be cheating, drivers who call me sir are usually cheating!". Hmmm, this is starting off nicely.

So I asked him what drivers usually called him, and he responded with, "asshole, by the end of the day most drivers just call me asshole". Um, ok, well, good morning asshole...

With the pleasantries out of the way he began the inspection. I fully expected him to take a highly detailed look at every aspect of the car, and drill me on my build methods etc. This process could easily take an hour I thought.

Needless to say, the whole thing was over in like 5 minutes. He looked at my belts, looked at the drivers suit, looked at my gloves, shoes, helmet... and that was about it. Man, was I torqued off. You mean to tell me that I busted my ass building the perfect race car, and you are only going to looked at for 5 minutes!!!

You are not even going to look under the car to see that I had used the specified sized backing plate for the belt anchors?

You are not going to check if the nozzles on my fire system are properly mounted?

You are not going to check the grade of fasteners on my seat install?

You are not going to measure the height and stroke width of my numbers?

You are not going to check the nice inspection holes on the roll cage?

The list goes on, but you get the idea. Talk about a reality check lesson for me that day. Oh well, the inspector did complement me on the quality of the car. So that is some consolation I suppose... but 5 minutes? What about my over engineered, perfectly to spec tow hooks? Huh? What about them?...

Wayne

[Quickshoe]

Hey Wayne, nice car! I thought that is what you wanted to hear.

I also had a disappointing annual tech.

I spent 14 months rebuilding a semi-basket case FF. I replaced every stinking fastener on the thing with AN. Bonded a new belly pan on it. All new aluminum. Every last rod end (more than 30) was replaced. New belts, fancy INDI-bead seat, you get the idea.

I was nervous about the legality of my motor as it is the only thing I didn't tear into. All new lines, but that is it. The car was purchased from a mid pack/back marker and I was concerned he might have thought every one in front of him was cheating. I approached the friendly (sincere) tech staff with mixed feelings. I thought don't volunteer any info and if things go well no harm no foul. Or I could be found illegal, plead ignorance, to save face and look like the "new guy" is a cheat. I decided to tell them up front that I hope everything's cool, because the history of the motor is unknown.

This is the only thing I was sweating at tech. Found out the motor was low on compression (8.7 vs max of 9.3) and my Intake valve lift was .040 under spec. COOL! I have a turd, but that's okay. I didn't rebuild the motor because they are expensive and only good for about 20 hours anyway. At about that time I should have the gearing and chassis set up figured out for the various tracks, and maybe have learned how to drive it. Then I can get it freshened.

Turns out, the tech guy didn't like the way the pedals mounted in the car. He didn't like the orientation of the fire bottle. Neither of these items are specified in the rule book.

Oh yeah, annual tech was the Saturday before the first event the following Friday!!

Well every car that was in that line that was the same (most popular) make had the pedals mounted in the same manner. It is the way they came from the factory 25 years ago. Some who had different brands of halon bottles didn't have the same issue as I. However, everyone with the same bottle in the same (popular) chassis had them mounted the "wrong" way. Clearance issues with body and dash meant that they could only be mounted one way. Again, came this way from the factory and in order to change the orientation one would need to reconfigure the entire dash panel, brake bias, and fire handle location.

Needles to say, I went there confident about the car, nervous about the motor. Came home with a pit in my stomach about all the work ahead in short order, and bummed that my tired motor was a major turd.

But, at least the people I met were great and I was finally going to get this car on track. They had 41 FF's entered at the first race!

VARA is an absolutely wonderful group of people to race with. Even their tech guys are nice, even if they are particular. They are concerned about our safety.

[whenry]

I have always felt that the tech guy was going to look the car over and if he saw any sore thumbs then he would start looking closer with the fine tooth comb. It is a compliment that he blew thru the car. Be happy; you could have had one of those techs where the guy just had to find something.
I usually make sure that the hood, doors and trunk lid are open and that all books, gear, etc are readily available and walk away. He'll call me if he needs me. YMMV

[Speed Raycer]

Clean cars tech quickly. That's the one thing I learned from the guy that got me into racing.

Not necessarily a good thing though.

------------------
Scott
It's not what you build...
it's how you build it
http://www.angelfire.com/mo3/rudder_racing/images/RX7_Pictures/SRsRX/sig58.jpg (http://www.izzyscustomcages.com) http://www.angelfire.com/mo3/rudder_racing/images/IzzysImgs/IzzysLogoDSsmall.jpg (http://www.izzyscustomcages.com)

[BMW RACER]

My first road racing tech was in 1982 at the IMSA RS event at Riveside Ca. To say their tech was low key is a huge understatement. I had just finished building my first racecar, a 1976 Capri II 2.3 (hey we've all got to start somewhere) I can't remember who the tech guy was except that he was from the South East. He stood about 15 feet away from the car and said "My that sure is a purdy car" then asked "If its not too much trouble could you open the hood?" at which point he moved to within 10 feet of the car "My that sure is a purdy engine" Next he came up with another request "Could ya'll do me one favour? Could you move the Champion Spark plug decal to the front of the door, that's where they want it" That was it, no suit or helmet check. They assumed you were smart enough to take care of your self! How things have changed.
SCCA seemed to go off the deep end in the late eighties out here in CalClub I remember when they used to give me grief about that teeny little hole that always seems appear in your nomex underwear just by the collar. Finally I bought seperate underwear that I only used for tech, and by the end of the season the tech Nazis had tugged on it enough to make that little deadly hole and started giving me grief about it! At which point I informed them that I've never worn this set of underwear and I only saved it for tech and if it wasn't for them yanking on it it would be just fine! That didn't go over too well!
Now it seems that CalClub has found a happy medium. They don't do much in the way of compliance but they seem pretty good with the safety stuff.