Do Stockers need correct year seats?

[Billy Nees]

Originally Posted by Adger Smith

What doe the NHRA TECHNICAL POLICIES & PROCEDURES
say about seats in the upholstery section?

Anyone have a copy and be willing to quote chapter and verse?

2009 rulebook (newest one I have )
Page 110, Interior:6, paragraph 2, Upholstery, Must have full factory-type upholstery, including factory-type floor mats or carpet, door panels and headliner, and front and rear seats".
It then goes into rear seat removal for roll bar.
Page 271, section 19, general regulations, interior:6:2, upholstery, seats, paragraph 2 "All seats must be upholstered, or as noted under Class or SFI requirements".
See my previous post.

[Michael Beard]

Enforcing seat rules must be working at NHRA. I plan on doing my part.

Uh, Travis, the car in question was thrown out at an IHRA race, so it sounds like they ARE enforcing the rules. Your post and some others on here make it sound like they were not.

Page 110, Interior:6, paragraph 2, Upholstery, Must have full factory-type upholstery, including factory-type floor mats or carpet, door panels and headliner, and front and rear seats".

Floor mats OR carpet? What cars came with floor mats but not carpet?

The 2010 IHRA rulebook states "Must have full factory-type upholstery, including front and rear seats when so equipped from factory, and factory-type floormats in place."

Can't wait for people to start getting tossed for lack of floormats. Good thing the Toyotas aren't in the Guide.... people would have the throttle getting hung open.

My wife pointed out that her '08 Charger didn't come with floormats -- they're an option on the car that you had to pay over $100 extra for!


I second Jeff Lee's post. "Factory-type" sounds subjective to me. Now a late-model seat in an old car, that's obviously incorrect. Bench vs bucket, obvious difference. If they care, they should explicitly state "correct for year/make/model" or "period correct, within reason, contact for approval" or whatever.

FWIW, I have a bench seat in my car, and have no problem reaching the shifter.

[Billy Nees]

[QUOTE=Michael Beard;181487]



Floor mats OR carpet? What cars came with floor mats but not carpet?



Michael, 1970 Novas (example) came with factory RUBBER floor mats not carpets.

[X-TECH MAN]

[QUOTE=Billy Nees;181495]

Originally Posted by Michael Beard

Floor mats OR carpet? What cars came with floor mats but not carpet?



Michael, 1970 Novas (example) came with factory RUBBER floor mats not carpets.

Max wedge Savoys, and 330 dodges. Just about any "el cheapo" body styles from the 50's and 60's no matter the brand.

[Ed Fernandez]

The solution is very simple.Give the rule book to the lawyers and they will make it so
specific your head will spin.Of course the rule book will then weigh 500 lbs.That will eliminate any doubts of the stupid or creative rule
benders.See,it's simple.
Leave the seats alone and concentrate on winning a round and or being competitive in a heads up.

[Chuck Norton]

[QUOTE=Michael Beard;181487]Floor mats OR carpet? What cars came with floor mats but not carpet?

In "olden times" the lower-end versions (read as "el cheapo") of many cars were equipped with full-width rubber mats instead of carpet. For example, my '66 Nova, a two-door post car had a rubber mat in place of a carpet. Actually, I think it was heavier and probably more expensive to replace in today's world than carpet would have been.

c

[LNorton]

I'm tired of having to find more weight bars, so I will gladly hold on to my power seats!

[X-TECH MAN]

[QUOTE=Michael Beard;181487]Uh, Travis, the car in question was thrown out at an IHRA race, so it sounds like they ARE enforcing the rules. Your post and some others on here make it sound like they were not.

They may be enforcing the rules AFTER someone complains (if anyone knows whats right or wrong) but the tech crew is NOT doing thier job to begin with when they tech in the class legal cars. Stock and S/S are not .90 cars or Top Sportsman type race cars. They just dont know what is right and what is wrong. It was the same story when I was working for IHRA more than 10 years ago. I ran into many problems when they came to me during eliminations or after a win. It happened after a Top Stock win by a certain small block Corvette that had a SOLID non working rear suspenion with the tires hanging OUTSIDE the finder wells and when I tried to throw it out and award the runner up the win I was over ruled by the higher ups because of the GM connections. I was also not allowed to have a 100% of the Top Stock field tear down at Budds Creek one year as I knew several were bogus. Thats when I decided to give it up and retire again. Until the IHRA finds enough tech people to police the problems it will never end. One tech guy cannot oversee every stock or S/S (not to mention the Pure stockers) car in competition. Who ever is in charge of the class legal cars needs to be able to rely on other tech guys and unfortuneatly the OLD farts like myself and a very few others ever cared. Some just dont know and most dont care. Danny Waters and Hank Blanenship have improved the tech in process 1000% but those 2 guys cant be everywhere at once.

[Evan Smith]

Floyd, I'm aware of how the rulebook works. You can certainly bend the rules to suit your needs, but as Dave Casey pointed out, the spirit of the class is that the seats that came with the option package for the car in question are the seats that should be used.

Re-read what I wrote. I know that certain parts require a part or casting number (intake and heads), other parts must be "factory correct" such as seats, interior and exterior trim packages, for which NHRA doesn't check part numbers, but requires factory parts. Examples of factory parts are hoods/scoops, moldings, SEATS, spoilers/wings, etc.

[Bobby Zlatkin]

What a bunch of cry babies. It would be funny if it wasn';t so sad. This is why current stockers are more radical than modified production cars were forty years ago.

My stupid analogy;
Republicans: "Keep stock the way it was in the 1960's.
Democrats : "Keep pushing one change through after another until we have the situation we now have.

What happened to the "spirit of the class". That should rise above "the letter of the law" unless you want the situation Ed Fernandez mentioned with the attorneys.

Those that want more relaxed rules, move up to super stock or just build your bracket car. But don't call it a stocker.