Some people are trying to take things too far. Not even necessarily "too far", but "too sloppy", "too unsafe" and "too far" all at the same time, which is a bad thing. And I want to discuss this publicly just in case anyone else is getting any ideas that very sloppily hacking parts off of a car equates to "building a race car".
A lot of this sort of falls outside the rules. As mentioned, our rules are intentionally loose and simple. They don't cover everything. But, they are a good starting point. So, let's look at the pointy end of where a "highly modified" car might compete within FAST. The rules are VERY simple, and they've been posted on the website for as long as they have existed. Nothing significant has changed in several years. Let's have a look.
M0 (Open Modified) Rules from the Modified Category page:
The Open Modified class (M0) is for exotic cars, and cars that exceed any of the above limits, but are otherwise street legal and on street tires. Cars that bump up from M1 also go to M0. For safety, doors, hood and a complete firewall are required for ALL Modified cars.
Tube frame and kit cars are allowed in Open Modified provided they have a minimum of two seats, are fully street legal, and meet all safety requirements.
R1 – Race Tire Rules from the Race Tire Category page:
This is our top class. Any streetable car on race tires can compete here regardless of modifications as long as it meets safety requirements.
Note the words "streetable" appear even in our top modified classes. And everything has to meet our safety requirements.
Our safety requirements are also fairly limited. I'm not going to post them all here, but here is our Vehicle Safety Inspection Checklist. Again, it's right there on the website. Now, I like to think that this goes without saying, but SAFETY RULES are not something that should be viewed as something to be worked around or compromised. Don't make excuses! Make your car safe!
There's one little section of the Safety Checklist that really bears a lot of consideration both from those who are trying to pass a tech inspection, AND from those who are performing one, and that is this:
OVERALL CONDITION - This covers a lot. Are the windows clean enough to see out of? Is the steering wheel cover so
frayed and/or loose that it is not safe? Is the car just janky and giving you a bad vibe? If you're not sure about something,
let the event safety officials know of your concerns, and they'll decide what needs to be done.
Ironically, someone said to me today "Well,we don't have a rule about a car being too janky, do we?" Read the above. Actually, WE DO. And if your car is so janky that 5 different people have to inspect it to try to make a call as to whether or not it's "safe"... guess what? It probably IS NOT.
A few things that are not specifically stated in the rules or the safety checklist, but can either be inferred, or should be common sense:
- As noted in each category of FAST classes, a car is intended to be "streetable". (yes, we do sometimes allow legit "race cars" that are not street cars to compete in R1... but, you'll note that they very much pass the "not janky" test, and we do look at them very closely)
- We expect that a car be able to be started from the driver's seat. That means it has a battery and a starter. (This is one of the reasons why we don't allow shifter karts, they quite often stall on course and can't be restarted, which slows down our event.)
- We expect a car to not have sharp edges that could cause injury to the driver, OR to anyone on site who might find cause to need to push that car for any reason.
- We expect a car to not have exposed wiring that could short out and cause a fire. This goes hand-in-hand with having a properly secured battery, same reasons.
- We expect a car to have an exhaust that is capable of meeting our sound restrictions. (and anybody who's been around FAST for more than 6 months who shows up with a car that they KNOW is way louder than that is just plain showing us a lack of respect, which will be met with just the kind of attitude one should expect)
- We expect a car to have an exhaust that terminates at the rear or side of the car, not UNDER the car where exhaust heat could cause a problem by melting wiring, heating fuel lines or fuel tank, heating brake lines, etc. This is the kind of thing that causes FIRES. We don't like fires.
- We are not expert welding inspectors, but we expect a welded structural part of a car (this includes a roll cage where the cage is either required by the safety rules, or is obviously structurally required) have the appearance that it could actually serve its purpose and not fail in competition. Don't RUSH this kind of work. Take the time to do it right. Failure to do so could result in failing a tech inspection based purely on "overall jankiness".
- We don't expect every car to be perfect. That's not what this is about. But, we will not compromise on safety. Whatever your car is, simply make it safe!
- There are a lot of details on the safety inspection checklist. Again, don't try to work around them. Read each one. Understand it. If necessary, ADDRESS it. Every one of those rules (and everything I may have clarified here today) is related to a potential safety issue that we have SEEN and we don't want to see again.