140 replies to this topic

[Johnny D]

J~

[Bruce Wilson]

All,

 

Please comment here https://www.crbscca.com/ to show your support and appreciation for the tireless effort the SMAC has put into these recommendations.

 

Thanks SMAC members!

 

#183276

[Bench Racer]

Letter complete #18327

[Mike Babcock]

#18328 submitted

[Rob Burgoon]

1.8 drivers regarding cold air:

 

[John Wilding]

Submitted #18334 - thanks for giving the 1.6 a little love. 

 

By the way, since I'm new to this, are these changes effective December 1st only if the CRB receives enough letters, or is it pretty much a done deal?

 

Thank you!

[38bfast]

The changes are proposed for 2016

[Johnny D]

Edit:

Submitted #18334 - thanks for giving proposed the 1.6 a little love. 
 
By the way, since I'm new to this, are these changes effective December 1st only if the CRB receives enough letters, or is it pretty much a done deal?
 
Thank you!

[jrhenson]

I'm a 1.6 driver and a bit of a lurker on here, but wanted to thank everyone for the discussions and information regarding this topic. 

 

My letter is submitted; #18338

[John Wilding]

Edit:

Thank you. Like I said, I'm new to this process. 

[Johnny D]

No worries John. 
 
Sometime seems like this.

[Johnny D]

Rule Making Process

Prepared by the Club Racing Board

The Club Racing Board, appointed annually by the BoD, is responsible for establishing rules and standards for the scheduling, organization, and conduct of SCCA-sanctioned Club Racing events. To assist in the rules making process, the Club Racing Board has appointed specialized Advisory Committees to make recommendations to the CRB based on their research and knowledge of the items. Integral to this rules making process is the membership. Rules development and changes in vehicle specifications are often a result of requests made by you, the member. Let’s take at look at how this process works.

STEP 1 - Member Input

A member, be they a competitor or an official, has a concern (e.g. "My car is not fast enough" or "his/her car is too fast" or "I can't possibly wave five flags at once" or "all I do is look at other people's underwear," etc.). Thus a letter is written, preferably to Club Racing at the National Office in Topeka, where the staff records its receipt and distributes it to each member of the appropriate advisory committee and each member of the Club Racing Board.

STEP 2 - Advisory Committees

The advisory committee members individually review each member's input and recommend a course of action to the chairman of that committee. The chairman then consolidates the responses and in turn makes a recommendation to the Club Racing Board liaison(s).

Where there is not an advisory committee appropriate to the subject, the Club Racing Board will consider the matter exclusively themselves.

STEP 3 - Conference Calls

The Club Racing Board convenes each month mostly via a conference call and considers the recommendations forwarded by the various advisory committees. Since the members of the advisory committees are hand picked from those that often closest to the action, their views carry a lot of weight.

Each month the Club Racing Board publishes in FasTrack the results of their deliberations. Typically these fall into five categories:

Rule Changes—A rule change typically affects an entire class, a method of car construction, or the manner in which a competitive event is conducted. The Club Racing Board is not authorized to unilaterally implement rule changes; they can only recommend that the Board of Directors approves them. They are published in FasTrack as recommended items and 30 days should elapse to allow all affected parties to submit their comments, either directly to the National Office or to their Area director (or both).

Competition Adjustments— Unlike a rule change, competition adjustments typically affect only one make or model of car and often are a reward for overachieving. When one-make dominance occurs the Club Racing Board acts to slow down the front runners and/or speed up the back markers. This is usually accomplished through changes in weight and/or the diameter of the carburetor venturi or a restrictor in the throttle body on fuel injected models.

The Runoffs® is only one of the many criteria used to determine the need for a competition adjustment. Race results from around the country are analyzed and of course the advisory committees are a major source of input in these deliberations.

Competition adjustments are published in FasTrack Technical Bulletins and unless stated otherwise, become effective the first of the cover month.

Tabled Items—These are subjects which require further research by the advisory committee or have been returned to committee for further consideration. In some cases the letter writer may not have provided enough details for a decision to be reached. In this case, a representative from the committee may contact the originator or another source for additional information.

Errors and Omissions—An E&O is just that, a correction of a typo, misplaced decimal points (95" brake rotors on a Bugeye!), or recently received information from a manufacturer providing missing or incorrect information in current publications.

Clarifications— While the Club Racing Board, when they write a rule, understand it totally and there is no doubt in the Board of Directors minds when they approved it, sometimes a few competitors will interpret it in a completely different manner. Thus a clarification is born. A clarification cannot result in a substantive alteration of a rule, merely an expression of its original intent. If it appears that a clarification will result in a totally new meaning, then it becomes in effect a rule change.

STEP 4 - Board of Directors

The Board of Directors (BoD) meets monthly. Items recommended by the CRB are considered twice a year, typically during the August and December meetings. When considering the items, the BoD takes into account the comments of their constituents. The BoD may also establish when a particular recommendation is to become effective. Normally, this would be October 1 of the current year, or January 1 of the following year, but special circumstances may demand more immediate implementation.

The actions arising from the BoD meetings are posted to the SCCA.com website and also published in the FasTrack section of SportsCar

A typical advisory committee comprises six to ten members, one of whom is selected chairman. They are invariably avid competitors with a strong technical knowledge and, in addition, a sense of where the class should be headed in the future. Selection is targeted to be geographical in nature to the greatest extent practical in order to ensure the widest possible points of view are presented.

Members serve for approximately three years so as to ensure a continuing influx of new ideas, but there is no set term for being on a committee. If you feel you have something to contribute in this arena, send a brief resume to the Club Racing Board at www.clubracingboard.com for future consideration.

Unlike an advisory committee, the Club Racing Board does not necessarily strive for geographic representation, although this is certainly a consideration. Of primary importance is the specialized knowledge each member must possess with respect to a specific class of vehicles. And, of course, a vision of the future.

In addition to the monthly telephone calls, the Club Racing Board meets face-to-face three times a year—February, May and November/December. The membership have an opportunity to express their views in person twice a year—at the Club Racing Town Hall meeting at the National Convention and again at the Runoffs®.

Though not an absolute requirement, the members of an advisory committee are a natural gene pool for future Club Racing Board members, so if this is an area which interests you, send in your resume and get involved with an advisory committee.

For issues relating to these technical forms, please contact John Bauer.

[B(Kuch)Kucera45]

Edit:

Johnny quit picking on the new guys !

Glad to see a couple of new guys posting on here. Don't be afraid to post or ask question guys as we are all just a big dis functional family !

[38bfast]

Fortunately or Unfortunately due to the format of rule changes you can turn a freighter much faster.

[Johnny D]

Sorry, didn't mean to.

But it shows ^^ more letters of support from more people may get this over the finish line.
Keep it up with the letters, IMO. Fresh letters from fresh people counts.

J~

[Brian129]

two little things i saw in the prelims

 

9.1.7.C.1.m.1:1  -  Great addition and I am in no way trying to complain.  Just understand

 

at one point the downpipe or midpipe was discussed as well to be cleaned up, as it can suffer from the same weld problems.  

Obviously this is not part of this rule.  was it deemed that the difference in these parts did not matter? or would be too much gain? .

I know the reason for this is not to fix the manufacturing variance,  it is more of a by product  

 

 

item 2 under SM  Allow removal of EVAP components.

 

Fuel filler tube venting may be defeated  (loop or block vent lines in trunk) 

So if we block the vent lines in the trunk,  and we are "removing the EVAP components" 

then does this mean we can ditch the charcoal canister and things in the front?  

IIDSYCTYC ?   

 

 

I am not looking to be an ungrateful 1.6 owner, I am in no way lobbying for more,  I just want to understand the limits of what this is.    This is a great step to help,  and thank you to all that have put effort in and worked to advise on this issue.  SMAC especially.  

[Bench Racer]

The Evaporative Emission Control System (EVAP) is used to prevent gasoline vapors from escaping into the atmosphere from the fuel tank and fuel system.

 

Went back and read another time.

 

2. #17569 (Cameron Conover) Allow Removal of EVAP Components

 

Add 9.1.7.C.1.l.2: 2. Fuel filler tube venting may be defeated (loop or block vent lines in trunk).

 

If only these underlined words are added to the rule, no to removing other EVAP parts.

[wheel]

The request asks for removal, but the rule change only allows for defeating the vent tubing.  When we put the original request in Fastback, you really need to look at the actual resulting recommendation to see what is approved.

[Steve Scheifler]

What are the supporting need/data/logic behind this proposed change?

[davew]

The quoted letter was to allow the entire system to be removed. I wrote a seperate letter that was encompased into this letter. This is what is intended:

 

On 1999 Miatas ONLY. Not on NA and not on 2000+. There are 2 small fuel vapor lines that go from the fuel tank to the fuel filler neck. These can be seen in the trunk. If you tear everything apart, these lines do not actually go to the tank, they go to the evap system. Under hard cornering, fuel will slosh up into the filler neck, some of the fuel will drain through the small tubes and eventually fill the charcoal cannister with fuel. This causes the car to run PIG F-ing rich, spit sputter etc. By simply looping the rubber hoses back on themselves (filler neck back to filler neck and fuel tank to fuel tank) you prevent the fuel from getting to the evap cannister.

 

This is not a performance advantage. It only defeats a very small portion of the evap system. The fuel tank still vents the same. Only the fuel filler neck does not vent. This is something that has been done by virtually every car builder for at least 5 years. The SMAC approved it back when I was Chairman. At some point it got lost and is not currently in the GCR. For the 2000 model year, Mazda modified the system to eliminate the 2 lines. It takes about 2 minutes to do this mod. Only tool required is a pair of pliers and costs ZERO dollars.

 

The rule should read something like:

 

On 1999 model year cars, the 2 small fuel vapor lines that attach to the fuel filler neck may be looped back upon themselves. They may not be plugged or modified in any other method.

 

Maybe somebody on the CRB or SMAC will read this and correct the wording

 

Dave