Mike Welles, our NHRA Division 2 tech man,
was the guy who recently passed my Fabrication
Concepts (Douglasville, GA) front-engine dragster
plus Fran’s re-done ’89 Suncoast rear-engine
dragster. He checked everything on both cars,
took him 30 minutes on each. Welles checked
how far the cages were in front of our heads,
he checked for the proper thickness of our (newly-required-by-NHRA)
helmet bars, he checked the thickness of the
bar tubes, their overall outer dimensions, he
checked for the proper uprights and the
proper frame “X’s,” and he sonic-tested
each with this little meter, for proper inner
dimensions. Only when he was satisfied that
our two dragsters met NHRA safety requirements
did he affix stickers on a bar inside each cockpit.
They were well worth the $260 we paid to have
both our cars certified. My FED is now good
for 6-second passes in the quarter-mile, and
likewise is Fran’s Suncoast.
Here’s my point, pictorially. I took this
shot of Mike DeSio’s Suncoast Super Gas/Super
Pro street roadster at the Division 2 bracket
finals at Gainesville Raceway several years
ago, when I was the head honcho for the late
“Bracket Racing USA” magazine. Mike
says his car was not only licensed to run the
quarter-mile, it was also licensed as legal
for the streets of Florida --- tagged, head
and tail lights working, etc., etc. Now I ask
you, does his roll bar look out of place on
the roadster? No, I don’t think so. When
Richard Earle built the car, he built it as
a single piece of working roadster. Not only
was the frame built with integrity, the cage
was built as a part of its whole. Talk to any
chassis builder and he’ll speak of “stiffness,”
how everything is tied into the race car as
a complete unit. Stiffness at the right places
ensure that the car works right, whether the
car is a ’23 T roadster or a ’37 Chevy
Super Streeter.
Your competent chassis man can make everything
on your new race car not only safe but aesthetically
pleasing. Just look at DeSio’s street roadster-cum-street
rod. I wish I could have found this photo to
show to my street rodder editor/buddy. But I
didn’t. And now I look in vain at the magazine’s
latest offerings in the world of street rodding,
and I see not one roll cage on any.
Your wildly-painted, big-bucks, fiberglass-bodied
street rod has all the latest “bling-blings,”
but bless its heart, it doesn’t have one
bar for the safety of your head. Where is your
head gonna be when you’re side-swiped on
the interstate by the van in the other lane
doing 65 mph, and your ride starts those sickening
barrel rolls? Is it time for you to wake up?
Perhaps. But I doubt it’ll happen. And
by the way, I’m enough of a libertarian
to say to the local, state or federal guys,
hey, lay off. I know there’s still some
freedom of choice out there, just leave the
government out of it.
And by the way, IHRA has a rule that I think
is still in effect, that everyone in every class
at national and divisional events must wear
a helmet, even if that class is for the lowest-classed
Stocker alive. And rumor has it that the association
is considering requiring full face shields on
helmets in each class as well. Good idea, says
I. 
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