Help with safety equipment/cage minimums

[A97syclone]

I am building a 128i that will be AWD with a turbo LS3 and 4L80E transmission. The AWD mod requires some floor modification for clearance of the front driveshaft as well as the transfer case.

I am trying to figure out what kind of events I'd be able to enter besides drag racing. I'm trying to figure out the roll cage minimums for any possible time trial, autocross, etc racing events that I'll be qualified to enter.

any ideas??

[hoki06]

Take a look at some of the national organizations and their regulations. I'm familiar with NASA and their CCR has details about cage minimums and requirements that are easy to follow. You'll also need to have an understanding of what class the car will likely fit into as there are some class-specific rules to pay attention to. Considering your build description, you'll likely fall into the "unlimited" or "open" type classes so you should have lots of freedom for extra chassis stiffening and cage attachment points beyond the typical 6+2.

NASA CCR: https://nasa-assets.s3.amazonaws.com...282/2023.1.pdf

SCCA CCR: https://cdn.connectsites.net/user_fi...pdf?1704409574

It's also worth mentioning that autocross and time trials are not the same as actual wheel-to-wheel racing despite the blanket "racing" term people like to use. You'll find significantly different safety requirements for TT vs W2W depending on the organization. For example, NASA TT you can run a street car in stock format right off the street. However for real W2W racing, you'll need a 6+2 cage with specific design and tube thickness based on the car, fixed seat within expiration date, harness within expiration date, fire system, electrical cut off, and many other things that meet the rules of your organization's CCR.

[A97syclone]

Originally Posted by hoki06

Take a look at some of the national organizations and their regulations. I'm familiar with NASA and their CCR has details about cage minimums and requirements that are easy to follow. You'll also need to have an understanding of what class the car will likely fit into as there are some class-specific rules to pay attention to. Considering your build description, you'll likely fall into the "unlimited" or "open" type classes so you should have lots of freedom for extra chassis stiffening and cage attachment points beyond the typical 6+2.

NASA CCR: https://nasa-assets.s3.amazonaws.com...282/2023.1.pdf

SCCA CCR: https://cdn.connectsites.net/user_fi...pdf?1704409574

It's also worth mentioning that autocross and time trials are not the same as actual wheel-to-wheel racing despite the blanket "racing" term people like to use. You'll find significantly different safety requirements for TT vs W2W depending on the organization. For example, NASA TT you can run a street car in stock format right off the street. However for real W2W racing, you'll need a 6+2 cage with specific design and tube thickness based on the car, fixed seat within expiration date, harness within expiration date, fire system, electrical cut off, and many other things that meet the rules of your organization's CCR.

Appreciate the detailed response, looks like I'll be sticking with NASA for a while, it'll be a street car for the majority and I'm mainly just doing it for fun. SCCA rules seem a lot stricter and with the AWD it would only fit into the touring classes they have.

[hoki06]

Originally Posted by A97syclone

Appreciate the detailed response, looks like I'll be sticking with NASA for a while, it'll be a street car for the majority and I'm mainly just doing it for fun. SCCA rules seem a lot stricter and with the AWD it would only fit into the touring classes they have.

You'll end up in NASA ST for racing with conveniently uses very similar classing rules to TT. Depending on the final version of the car, you'll be in ST/TT 1, 2, 3 or U. STU/TTU is basically an open class where all is fair and can be a catch all for unique and odd builds.

Enjoy and post some build progress details later on! Sounds like a fun project.

[DRLane]

Originally Posted by A97syclone

Appreciate the detailed response, looks like I'll be sticking with NASA for a while, it'll be a street car for the majority and I'm mainly just doing it for fun. SCCA rules seem a lot stricter and with the AWD it would only fit into the touring classes they have.

I believe there is safety “logbook” reciprocity across organizations. Meaning if you pass tech with NASA that race car log book can get you into SCCA without starting all over again.

However, for classing, SCCA won’t let your NASA STU build into one that would provide a huge advantage relative to the field.

Based on my research for my build, the orgs rank as follows for stringent specs:
SCCA => NASA => CCA => WRL => GTA/SLB.