Think back to your very first tech inspection. What was it like?
In my case, I had spent about one year building the car. This car had a previously issued log book. I was moving the car up a class and had made many changes/improvements. I agonized over making sure EVERYTHING was spot-on legal and safe. I spent many hours reading, and re-reading the gcr. On several occasions I was accused by existing racers of being way to anal about the whole thing. I spent much money and time doing a very high quality job of building this car. Heck, even my decals were held on with grade 8 fasteners.
I was convinced the tech inspector would be highly impressed, and would find nothing wrong with my pride and joy.
So then the day finally came for my first tech inspection, and I nervously rolled the car up to the inspection lane. The chief of tech walked over, and I said, "Good morning sir". This apparently was the wrong thing to say as he responded with, "Sir! You must be cheating, drivers who call me sir are usually cheating!". Hmmm, this is starting off nicely.
So I asked him what drivers usually called him, and he responded with, "asshole, by the end of the day most drivers just call me asshole". Um, ok, well, good morning asshole...
With the pleasantries out of the way he began the inspection. I fully expected him to take a highly detailed look at every aspect of the car, and drill me on my build methods etc. This process could easily take an hour I thought.
Needless to say, the whole thing was over in like 5 minutes. He looked at my belts, looked at the drivers suit, looked at my gloves, shoes, helmet... and that was about it. Man, was I torqued off. You mean to tell me that I busted my ass building the perfect race car, and you are only going to looked at for 5 minutes!!!
You are not even going to look under the car to see that I had used the specified sized backing plate for the belt anchors?
You are not going to check if the nozzles on my fire system are properly mounted?
You are not going to check the grade of fasteners on my seat install?
You are not going to measure the height and stroke width of my numbers?
You are not going to check the nice inspection holes on the roll cage?
The list goes on, but you get the idea. Talk about a reality check lesson for me that day. Oh well, the inspector did complement me on the quality of the car. So that is some consolation I suppose... but 5 minutes? What about my over engineered, perfectly to spec tow hooks? Huh? What about them?...
Wayne
In my case, I had spent about one year building the car. This car had a previously issued log book. I was moving the car up a class and had made many changes/improvements. I agonized over making sure EVERYTHING was spot-on legal and safe. I spent many hours reading, and re-reading the gcr. On several occasions I was accused by existing racers of being way to anal about the whole thing. I spent much money and time doing a very high quality job of building this car. Heck, even my decals were held on with grade 8 fasteners.
So then the day finally came for my first tech inspection, and I nervously rolled the car up to the inspection lane. The chief of tech walked over, and I said, "Good morning sir". This apparently was the wrong thing to say as he responded with, "Sir! You must be cheating, drivers who call me sir are usually cheating!". Hmmm, this is starting off nicely.
So I asked him what drivers usually called him, and he responded with, "asshole, by the end of the day most drivers just call me asshole". Um, ok, well, good morning asshole...
With the pleasantries out of the way he began the inspection. I fully expected him to take a highly detailed look at every aspect of the car, and drill me on my build methods etc. This process could easily take an hour I thought.
Needless to say, the whole thing was over in like 5 minutes. He looked at my belts, looked at the drivers suit, looked at my gloves, shoes, helmet... and that was about it. Man, was I torqued off. You mean to tell me that I busted my ass building the perfect race car, and you are only going to looked at for 5 minutes!!!
You are not even going to look under the car to see that I had used the specified sized backing plate for the belt anchors?
You are not going to check if the nozzles on my fire system are properly mounted?
You are not going to check the grade of fasteners on my seat install?
You are not going to measure the height and stroke width of my numbers?
You are not going to check the nice inspection holes on the roll cage?
The list goes on, but you get the idea. Talk about a reality check lesson for me that day. Oh well, the inspector did complement me on the quality of the car. So that is some consolation I suppose... but 5 minutes? What about my over engineered, perfectly to spec tow hooks? Huh? What about them?...
Wayne
