NHRA Tether Rule Update

[SSDiv6]

http://www.nhraracer.com/content/gen...756&zoneid=132

[Ed Wright]

Looks good to me. I'll fire up the TIG welder.

[63corvette]

I think I may have struck a nerve earlier this week by submitting a design and stating I had no interest of producing them.
I do not like the two current designs so I came up with my own and submitted it to Glendora and my Division Tech director.
Seems a little strange we get a new revised rule in the same week as my submission.
My neighbor has a Ornamental Iron works so he may want to start producing the tethers as they are cheap to build and looks like with current pricing of the approved ones there is a good amount of profit to be made.
I built mine in less than an hour for under $30.
Below are pictures of the tethers and part of what I sent to NHRA.
Just My 2 Cents
Rick Cates

The design is just a one piece 3/16" stainless steel rod with eyes forged on each end to length for my Davis C-5 Corvette roadster headers which the pictures are of.
The loops are large enough to fit over the 3/4" wide stainless steel T bolt clamps studs with enough room for expansion of the headers as they heat up. Shown in pictures.
The clamps have a stainless steel aircraft grade nut to hold them under high temperature and vibration. I had to order those so the pictures are of a nylox nut which will be replaced once the aircraft lock nuts come in.
The only attachment points for possible failure are those 1/4" fine thread T bolts and aircraft nuts on the clamps.
This design is much simpler with less connection points than what is currently approved and I would like to have approval for my design for my use.

[Charlene Gullett]

Hmm, it appears that some believe we are not all smart enough to figure out how to secure our collectors without an "approved device" This device also took less than an hour to manufacture and is less than $20. This was our solution. This is not one made with those expensive swageless eye aircraft fittings, but this wire rope thimble and ferrule have been an industry standard for years. It should prevent a 2lb collector from flying into my opponents lane.

[tpoh815]

"The NHRA Technical Department will not accept Tethering System requests from individual racers, as this will inundate our resources and create an impossible situation to regulate in the field. Therefore, material sent from individual racers will not be reviewed for acceptance. Only legitimate manufacturers planning to market a tethering system should submit a request". This means if you do not kick in or contribute to the NHRA in any way , Don't bother!

[gsa612]

This is a real rip-off!,seeing that there now allowing a 1/2" stitch weld on ea. pri. tube. Why not allow a tab on every tube, this would allow the header to be R/R on cars where the tube goes over the frame, as of now the only option is the tether on those cars.In 40 years I have not seen or heard of an actual collector fall off, only the extension that some guys try to hammer/swedge on.I can see this as maybe being a concern on a NO2 or turbo car, where it might back fire and blow the header to sh#@.

[Tom Moock]

gsa612, I was at cordova points meet 2 or 3 years ago and a SS Monza lost a collector during burn out or leaving the starting line? went under tire and shot it out the back clear to fence behind the starting line next to the highway. It came so fast you couldn`t have moved out the way, it hit a tire on golf cart next to me. Tom

[CWhitney]

So is there going to be a muffler tether next? Muffler tether to the collector tether to the header tether to frame?

[FED 387]

I have been drag racing a looooong long time probably more years than many of you are old---I am trying hard to remember if I can remember one incident where a collector came loose from a race vehicle although I am sure it has happened at least once !!! Looking at the devices that NHRA has currently approved as well as the pictures that some have posted here on the site it seems to me that many could fabricate an acceptable device to meet the NHRA specifications at far less cost!!

$200 plus or minus is a totally riduculous amount to spend on a device that obviously costs a minimal amount to fabricate. Welding is not an acceptable solution either for many situations. What happens if you go to tear down and in some cases individual tubes wrap around steering and frame areas do you then cut the weld to remove that tube and reweld that tube together again so you can go back and race later??? Pretty soon you will run out of places to weld on !!!!

The collector location under any full body chassis is going to be an extremely difficult area for many tech inspectors to examine simply because sometimes the collector is almost up against the floor and behind the frame rail. Common sense needs to prevail here. What will be next an approved NHRA/SFI battery hold downs or a SFI approved overflow bottles or better yet SFI approved gas tanks straps to replace the OEM ones??? C'mon let the racer make up something that will do the job and get back to something else that needs immediate attention---FED387

[Jim Wahl]

Let me say first off I am for anything that makes racing safer. That said, I also must say the way NHRA is going about this smells! It smells of kickback from "approved" manufacturers. In order to achieve said kickback the current two approved manufacturers are inflating the price phenomenally. CollectorTether.com is charging $199-$249 for $30 worth of materials. I'm thinking NHRA must be pocketing about $50 or more each. It takes about 10 minutes to assemble the said parts. With 5000 race cars that will be required to install these teathers or they can't race, that works out to a quarter million bucks! Quite a handsome profit for a few clamps and some steel cable. The Lokar pieces are unbelievably over thought and complicated. The HeaderTether.com piece is much more slick and better thought out. Neither one is worth more than $50 racer price. Also as of this date, neither are SFI approved but NHRA is allowing them. I am very doubtful they will ever be SFI approved. Just another way of keeping the individual racer from making their own tether!

If NHRA was genuinely interested in correcting a problem (more people have been killed by loose Top Fueler tires) they would set a standard, much like the roll bar rules, and allow racers to fabricate their own header tethers. I will NOT be paying $200-$250 for this newest obvious NHRA money making enterprise paid for on the backs of the racer. Nor will I be hacking up my $2600 SS headers by welding them all together, this was a disingenuous alternative by NHRA. I will make my own tethers. I am fully capable, as are 90% of the racers I compete with. If they are not acceptable, I will not race with the NHRA until they rethink this deal. Scooter Peaco must be smiling somewhere right about now. Jim


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