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Originally Posted by Aussie Mike
I don't think this is much of an excuse. If these guys are racing all the time wouldn't you think they should be on top of their safety gear setup already?
Cheers
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I'm guessing that they already consider their cars safe enough already, I know most have spent considerable time & money making safety changes. And to be honest I'm not going to judge their opinion or priorities on safety. They are certainly compliant for all the racing they do up here. It's just that 50mm rule that seems to be the killer. That's a big ask in a Cobra, considering most want to keep them looking the part. Remember these are street driven cars, quite a few are strong show cars as well. Also don't forget about soft-top/hard top clearance as well, most would have problems there if the roll bar is changed. It wasn't long ago that structural roll bars were virtually non-existent, that's why most kits don't have factory roll bar supports.
Plus applying different rules on a time basis has some serious issues in my opinion.
Up here we have seen plenty of Cobras have serious off-road excursions into barriers etc. We have not had any incidents that would have benefited from a Cobra style roll bar no matter what height or mounting. Seat belts, seat construction, head support(head rests), side protection seem to be more important issues and factors in these type of incidents.
To be honest we have been struggling to get interest in the Nationals as we have plenty of race, show & social events up here to keep everyone happy. It's a long and expensive trip to the Nationals from QLD. We only gathered enough momentum so far to support Shelby Fest for one year(2006). I doubt we would be able to do it again unfortunately, took too much out of everyone. It wasn't long ago(a few years), we struggled to get much interest at all in the Nationals and I don't want to go back to those days. And it's not just us, this will affect all interstate competitors.
These rule changes don't affect me at the moment, so I don't have any personal involvement in them.