Enduro sup. reg. standardization?

[Greg Amy]

Chuck, is there any chance we can have some input into these rules? One safety-related rule that I've brought to the attention of organizers numerous times is night time headlight width.

As street drivers we've been programmed into correlating distance-between-headlights with distance-behind-us. The narrower the distance between headlights, the "farther away" the preceding car is. Unfortunately, many enduro cars have auxiliary headlights installed that are very close together; two common examples are Spec Racers that mount driving lights over their heads on the narrow roll hoop, and Spec Miatas that mount driving light on the center of the nose and can't raise their normal headlamps.

I've personally witnessed - and have almost been involved in - many an avoidable crash where one of these vehicles with narrow headlights dives into a corner under a slower car, only to have that slower car turn into them. The reason these incidents happen is because the cars with the narrower headlights "appear" farther away, and as the leading car looks up to see who's coming before turn-in has no idea that the faster car behind them is only a few car lengths back.

Of course, there's a simple answer to this: specify a minimum distance between headlamps. This number doesn't necessarily have to be random; the distance between a pair of Spec Miata headlamps would work perfectly fine, which would require SM drivers to design their system such that they can raise their stock headlamps (with those big aux lights hanging out there in the breeze it won't add THAT much drag...) The Spec Racers would just need to widen out their lamp mounting brackets a bit - and I suggest that if they've noticed a lot of guys turning into them at night, it might be a good idea to do it anyway, even without a rule.

And, the rules can be flexible enough such that if one of the two lamps goes out, then one is fine; I know that if I have a car coming up on me with only one lamp I'm especially careful and rarely surprised

Food for thought, but this is my #1 pet peeve about endurance racing equipment. - GA

[Knestis]

It is good news that the Board is thinking about this but equally, it concerns me if the draft is being done without substantive input from folks used to actually running club enduros. I'd like to know more, too.

K

[Hahn63]

It is good news that the Board is thinking about this but equally, it concerns me if the draft is being done without substantive input from folks used to actually running club enduros. I'd like to know more, too.

K

I agree. We need to be very careful not to paint ourselves in a corner. Everyone in the enduro community needs to be involved!

[Hahn63]

Greg, almost all of the time you bring up very good items. But this one please tell me your joking.

All I have tried over the past couple of years to get some agreement from all the enduro events and we are a lot closer to each other than ever before.

I caution everyone to not get wording in the GCR. Once it is in there it will be a lot harder to change. Saftey is important but the enduro community as a whole has had a very good record when it comes down to it for what we do.

Fire away all!

[Greg Amy]

Greg, almost all of the time you bring up very good items. But this one please tell me your joking.

I infer your disagreement is with the idea of GCR rules in general, versus the specific example I offer above? Fine, I hear you. But the problem is that without some kind of centralized intervention there's just about zero chance of standardization (everybody wants to do it their own way, in a vacuum).

And I hear you wanting to offer input, regardless. Keep in mind this is the first time any of us - me, especially - have heard anything about any movement toward national standardization...

[Hahn63]

Um Greg, sorry, but I was refering to your headlight statement. I know I know ...i just lit another fuse. Dude, we can't even get them to put numbers on right and you want headlights spaced? Ah nope! FYI I want my pencial beams right next to each other...old rally guys never give up on lights!

[Greg Amy]

Um Greg, sorry, but I was refering to your headlight statement. I know I know ...i just lit another fuse.

All I know is, a Pablo rear bumper and/or rear wheel/tire is a lot sturdier - and probably costs a lot less - than Spec Racer bodywork... - GA

[Hahn63]

I hear you loud and clear. Guess they won't do that again! Maybe the sun is spaced wrong too cause it happens during the day as well!

[Hahn63]

FYI to all enduro guys. The ECS is not dead...just for this year with this crappy economy. I am working with a lot of folks to bring it back in 2010. If you would like to add input to what you would like to see in such a series my email is always open! [email protected]