Mad As Hell
I’m mad as hell but it looks like I’ll just have to bend over and take it! If you’ve got a roll bar equipped drag car with an aftermarket safety harness, you probably get as pissed off as I do when you are forced to re-web the belts every two years. Sure, it’s done in the name of safety, but we all really know it ensures a steady stream of return business – and cash flow - for the safety gear merchants. Can you imagine the wide spread riots that would ensue if the sanctioning bodies had the power to say; “sorry, your cylinder heads, crankshaft and ring gear are out of date”. But when it comes to safety gear, anything goes, even rotten deals like this.
I recently got bounced from tech inspection at my local NHRA drag strip because the overkill 5-point harness in the high-eleven second car I was planning on running had an expired date tag. On this day I got up at 4:00 a.m. to ready the car and load it on the trailer, only to be turned away for – this? Knowing I might as well piss into the wind on a blustery day, my blood pressure tached out. All the same, I couldn’t hold back and needed to vent.
Using a calm voice, I asked the tech inspector to look at the belts for any signs of damage or abuse that might compromise their ability to restrain me in the event of an impact. He said “the rules are the rules, I can’t change them”. I kept going. I asked him “do you think the rolls of belt webbing material used by the manufacturer are summarily shit canned every two years”? Of course not. I bet there are rolls of webbing used to “update” expired belts that date back to when Britney had half a brain and you could still buy a new Plymouth. This stuff doesn’t go bad on the shelf, or in a seldom used drag car.
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Finally, I pointed to the nitrous-packed ’89 5.0 Mustang behind me in the tech line. An 11.7 car with slicks, the Mustang still had its two decade old factory issue three point seat belts. Recent NHRA rules state that factory issue seat belts can be used until the car exceeds the 11.49 barrier, then its time to add a roll bar and safety harness. But as soon as you add a roll bar to any car – even a 15-second turd - you get sucked into the world of mandated aftermarket safety harnesses and the change-them-every-two-years routine. So what do you do? Nothing. Just grit your teeth, shut up and send your harness back to the manufacturer for re-webbing. As the tech guy told me “Can’t be too safe, y’know”. Yuh…
