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Will 2005 be Your Final Year on Earth?
By George Klass
Chilling thought, right? As the new season of drag racing approaches, it’s time to take a serious look at the safety equipment on your race car. During the off season, I’m sure that a lot of your attention has been focused on other things, like more power, and all of the "go fast stuff" that is required to win. However, going faster and winning more races in 2005 won’t matter much if you wind up dead or injured.
There is no easy or politically correct way of addressing the safety issues in drag racing, other than head-on. It’s a subject that no one really wants to talk about, so, let’s talk about it.
I think that the best way to address YOUR personal safety issues is to ask yourself important questions, starting with the simple ones. Are your belts and webbing up to date? Are they mounted correctly?
In teching cars, I see a lot of incorrectly mounted crotch straps and shoulder harnesses.
Do you have a good driver’s seat, or is it one of those cheap foam-filled plastic ones that you bought for $69? My advice is to invest in a good racing-style seat with a good headrest and side structure. While we are still discussing the interior, does your interior have a lot of "pointy" things sticking out to bite you if your body is ever rolling around in there at 150 MPH? Is your roll bar or cage padded correctly where your legs, arms and other parts of your body may make contact in the event of a spill? Are you trying to get away with using the cheap foam padding that the plumbers use on pipes rather than the good stuff sold for racing purposes?
How about this? Is there stuff inside your car (computers, intercoolers, data logging devices, etc.) that is going to tear loose in the event of a spill? Talking about intercoolers (or nitrous bottles) which may be mounted on the passenger side, if you had to get out on that side of the car, could you even crawl over all of that gear? Is the inside door handle on the passenger side VERY accessible? Could you find it if the interior was full of smoke?
Smoke? Yes, your car could catch on fire. Is your interior just full of items that burn like crazy? Carpeting, plastic factory interior panels, padded dashboards and headliners are all great for a quiet-running street car, but man will it (and you) burn.
It goes without saying that one of the biggest threats to your safety is the potential of fire, and yet, I can’t believe how many cars come through tech with holes in their firewalls. Not just little holes, but BIG holes. Here is how to tell if your firewall is completely sealed: Roll the car out of your garage during the day time and open or remove the hood. Then stick your head under the steering wheel and look up at the firewall.
If you see ANY light coming through, FIX IT. If you guys had a nice ski boat with just a tenth as many holes in the bottom as most of you have in your firewalls, you better know how to swim.
Let’s assume that you are going to have a fire at sometime. It happens. Do you have a fire suppression system? You know, the kind where you push or pull the handle and the fire is instantly smothered? If you don’t, why not? They are relatively inexpensive and can save your life. They can also save your love life (which some of you may feel is more important that just saving your life). Have you ever seen a guy that has been in a really serious fire? It’s not uncommon to have lips, ears and nose completely burned off, along with those horrible scars. Uggglyyyy. Do you see where I’m going with this? A good fire system is less costly than having to sacrifice your love life for the rest of your days.
Back to holes in your firewall for a minute. What about the big hole in the transmission tunnel where the shifter comes through? Can you make it smaller? Have you ever thought about using that fireproof material that can be clamped around the shift lever and also attached or stapled to the transmission tunnel? Think of that. No hole for fire to come through when your transmission fluid overflows the catch can, gets on the headers and catches fire.
Here are a few other things to cogitate on while we are talking about your life and limbs. Your drive shaft can be deadly. Sure, you have a couple of drive shaft loops on either end in case a U-joint or a yoke goes away, but what if the shaft breaks in the middle and comes up through the floor? It can and has happened. Talk about a potential disaster? That thing is spinning and whipping around, just destroying the right side of your fat self, and what can you do? Not a damn thing until the car stops. Ever think about using a 360 degree drive shaft shield like the Pro Stock guys are mandated to use? Not very expensive and it can sure save you some agony.
Unfortunately, the worst can happen, and it will happen during the 2005 racing season. It will be very sad and we will all talk about what a great guy he was and how he will be missed. But, if you are willing to take a hard look at your car, and I mean really look at it, starting with the interior, and address all of the things that you KNOW should and can be done to increase your personal safety potential if and when the worst happens, you will be able to walk away from it and we won’t have to talk about you.
After you are finished reading this, think about your wife and your kids and the rest of your family. Think about what can happen if you don’t put every effort into making your car as safe as it is possible to make it. Not just "to spec," but even beyond that.
And then think about never getting lucky again.
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© Competitionplus 2004
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