cert. question
 

can a mild steel round tube chassis car be cert. to 7.50 ?

Re: cert. question
 

Double-check with Tom Goldman (or ???) to be 100% sure but my SFI source tells me that if a mild steel car has a current 7.50 cert on it now, when it comes up for renewal it will not be grandfathered and the new cert will only be good to 8.50.
-Don

Re: cert. question
 

Thanks Don. So Tom can u confirm this?

Re: cert. question
 

Yes you can tag a MS car to 7.50 but it has to have everything the cert needs. If you can get a copy of the SFI blueprints compare them to your car and see if you can add one or two bars to get it to work. You need a FC cage a roof crossbrace, X in the floor and doors, etc. I just finished an update on one and it passed with flying colors. But 7.50 is the limmit no faster. Hope this helps, Mike

Re: cert. question
 

What Mike said. ... 7.50 MAX cert for mild steel chassis,provided they have all the proper brace tubes and F/C cage to meet the 25.4 spec. Bryan ,call me at the shop,I have the SFI prints ,we can go over what bars to look for,depending on what cage configuration the car has. ..610-395-5585 after 7:30pm...... Tom

Re: cert. question
 

Thanks for the info guys,I'm looking for a door car and the price difference between chrome moly and mild steel is off the hook, when probably all I can only afford to run 7.80s/8.00s anyway,is there any other advantige to running chrome moly than the cert.,weight,etc...???

Re: cert. question
 

Bryan, you said it the biggest advantage to a CM car if you don't have to have it is resale. The tubing is stronger hence the thinner wall thickness required. A MS car will work fine if all you want to do is run 8.00 or so, you will be a little heavy but you have to give a little to get a little. If you are planning to build a new car I would build it out of CM but if you want to buy a MS car and update it go for it and put the money you saved to something else. Mike

Re: cert. question
 

Bryan,There can be a 30% weight benefit when the car is completely chrome moly,this is the weight of the tubing only ,depending on the builder and if minimum spec tubing sizes are used.........A moly car will more likely be a professionally constructed car, altho there are many excellent mild steel cars out there , I would only consider one that has been TIG welded.......The key to buying any car that is coming up for recert or is out of certification , is to consult the SFI specs and see if any tubes need to be added and how difficult it will be to install them. ... Many older moly cars may not cert for quicker than 8.50 without the addition of diagonals under both floors or across the top of the main hoops. Kidney bars are also missing on a lot of older cars. ........ I would suggest only buying a car on the condition that it recieves a new 25.1 or 25.4 cert. before the sale. ..... Tom

Re: cert. question
 

Thanks again!