Neat and clean appearance?

[77ITA]

I think it looks fine... probably on the nicer end of most of the IT cars in the Midwest circuit. I raced all of '07 in an ITA car that looked the same or worse.

We're not all made of money and often times it doesn't make sense to do a bunch of body work on a $3k car between races when we know it's going to happen again. I can also assure you that the rule is written to keep a professional image for our sport, not to ensure that we all have show cars. As long as your car doesn't look like a demo-derby car from 50 feet away, you should be fine. I'd personally like the opportunity to tell your tech inspector where he can shove his GCR.

[planet6racing]

I think it looks fine... probably on the nicer end of most of the IT cars in the Midwest circuit. I raced all of '07 in an ITA car that looked the same or worse.

We're not all made of money and often times it doesn't make sense to do a bunch of body work on a $3k car between races when we know it's going to happen again. I can also assure you that the rule is written to keep a professional image for our sport, not to ensure that we all have show cars. As long as your car doesn't look like a demo-derby car from 50 feet away, you should be fine. I'd personally like the opportunity to tell your tech inspector where he can shove his GCR.

And I'm sure they'd be perfectly happy to have your help in Tech. The line on Friday was 50 cars deep and took 3 hours for some to get through. Others were sent away and told to come back on Saturday.

[pfcs]

"I think it looks fine... probably on the nicer end of most of the IT cars in the Midwest circuit. I raced all of '07 in an ITA car that looked the same or worse.

We're not all made of money and often times it doesn't make sense to do a bunch of body work on a $3k car between races when we know it's going to happen again. I can also assure you that the rule is written to keep a professional image for our sport, not to ensure that we all have show cars. As long as your car doesn't look like a demo-derby car from 50 feet away, you should be fine. I'd personally like the opportunity to tell your tech inspector where he can shove his GCR. "

I agree strongly and had the same experience at the same track. When I ended up in impound in 4th after the 94 ARRC the tech guys gave me the third degree about the neat and clean rule, telling me that if I returned in the same condition, I wouldn't be allowed to race. The car was raced all over the NE without any mention of neat/clean until then as well as later (95) phil

[Spinnetti]

I think there's a bigger question than the dents on the car.... As was posted earlier, we aren't running a junker class, and having to be responsible for your bodywork will (hopefully) reduce the amount of contact between cars knowing you have to fix it. Right now, I've got my car stripped to the bare chassis, and I'm fixing/repainting the whole thing to near showroom (it has only ever had one dent). Who wants to run with a bunch of Junkers anyway? Oddly enough, I've just run two 24hrs of Lemons races (not in the same car!), and not only was it a ton more fun than any SCCA race I've ever done, but there was less contact. At lemons, they black flag anybody who touches anything. Keeps things clean, and I wish they would do that in SCCA... would reduce the amount of crashing and banging, which I for one, want no part of.

[dickita15]

I can also assure you that the rule is written to keep a professional image for our sport, not to ensure that we all have show cars. As long as your car doesn't look like a demo-derby car from 50 feet away, you should be fine.

I really don’t believe that is the whole reason. There is a school of thought that drivers who have body damage already are likely to try less to avoid future contact. I know in one SCCA division the stewards were trying to crack down on SM metal to metals and one tool they used was to write up all damage after every race. I am told it worked.

[JLawton]

two years ago ITA was impounded after a race and everyone written up who had body damage. I believe that it needed to be done by the next annual.

[Knestis]

It's also harder to determine if - or how - body damage might have occurred, if a car comes to an event pre-dented.

I'm not running the ARRC because I spent that part of the budget fixing major whangs from the Summit 12 and IT Festival of Fail. I personally think that it's a good rule and should be enforced more than it seems to be.

>> ...it doesn't make sense to do a bunch of body work on a $3k car between races when we know it's going to happen again.

I gotta say that this perspective is worrisome to me. We should NEVER collectively get to the point where it's a foregone conclusion that we're going to run into each other. The most likely outcome of that is that we WILL run into each other more often...

K

[ddewhurst]

For those tha view the Teg as looking ok please provide your base line for when a car is beyon what is accecptable to you. Please write your specification so that we the others may understand your base line. We ALL need the same written rule to follow.

[pfcs]

"Cars that Phil finds aesthetically unacceptable must be subject to this rule"

[ddewhurst]

"Cars that Phil finds aesthetically unacceptable must be subject to this rule"

..............^ that would be the issue. It's kind of

[raffaelli]

"Any car in worse condition than mine"

[John Nesbitt]

For those tha view the Teg as looking ok please provide your base line for when a car is beyon what is accecptable to you. Please write your specification so that we the others may understand your base line. We ALL need the same written rule to follow.

The GCR is fairly straightforward (emphasis added):

9.3.6. APPEARANCE NEAT/CLEAN & SUITABLE FOR COMPETITION

Appearance neat and clean, and suitable for competition. Specifically, cars that are dirty either externally or in the engine or passenger compartments, or that show bodywork damage, structural or surface rust, or that are partially or totally in primer, or that do not bear the prescribed identification marks shall not be approved for competition.

[erlrich]

I don't see any good reason why drivers should be showing up at races with cars that are not neat and clean, and free of body damage and presentable to our audiences. Between the prize money and the sponsor funding there is really no excuse...

[steve b]

The GCR is fairly straightforward (emphasis added):

9.3.6. APPEARANCE NEAT/CLEAN & SUITABLE FOR COMPETITION

Appearance neat and clean, and suitable for competition. Specifically, cars that are dirty either externally or in the engine or passenger compartments, or that show bodywork damage, structural or surface rust, or that are partially or totally in primer, or that do not bear the prescribed identification marks shall not be approved for competition.

I might as well hang it up if my engine compartment needs to be neat and clean