They've let drivers tandem without cages

 

dude, can we like patch up those dips with some grass or something... they are harsh on the car!

 

Yeah, OGP is very open to us coming out and laying some cement to patch in the dippy areas such as the end of turn 1 where it splits between the straight and the chicane, as well as the inside edge of the sweeper part of it. With any luck, those and other places will be taken care of before DDay 8 on Oct. 15th.

On Tandem: I'm saying as a general rule that any driver that wants to tandem needs to have verified skill and proper safety equipment. Unless it happened while I wasn't looking, we really haven't ever tackled doing tandem as a serious venture, so the exact definitions of both of those terms will have to be determined. The skill aspect of it may come in the form of a sort of "license" or a Ziptied-esque Pass/Fail program (because it has become very popular, aparently). As far as the proper safety equipment, helmet and extinguisher are definite musts, and in all previous discussions of the subject, "rollcage" was always mentioned. We're not really sure on a lot of it yet, but rest assured that our best minds are hard at work!

I know that other events allow tandem without cages, and that is a risky venture. Speaking hypothetically, if any of those org's ever have to make a claim on their insurance because a driver got hurt, it would most likely raise the rates enough that they either wouldn't be able to get insurance for an event again, or they wouldn't be able to make them affordable. Of course DGtrials wants to maximize the burnination for all you guys, but we simply can't compromise when it comes to safety.

Besides the monetary factor, is there any reason that people don't want to get cages? I'm not talking about the jungle-gym 6 or 8-point beasts, but at least a 4-point akin to something like this: http://www.festivegarage.com/store/p...35bbb25c167f43 (I can't promise anything just yet, but it's possible that we could organize a group buy or discounted rate on that particular item)

Insurance is one subject that is out of my hands, but I assure you guys that, for the coverage we are provided with, we really can't beat the price.

BTW - I am told that we DO have timing equipment. This means that Gymkhana is not too far off. In the meantime, it also means that we could set it up to calculate entry speed into a given turn, if that's something that people would be interested in

Overall, I want to give you guys what you want out of the events while still fitting within the framework that we at DGTA have created. Erik, Kyle and I put on the events because we love the sport and want to give folks the opportunity to get their drift on without having to worry about running into a telephone pole or getting arrested. If we were in it for the money we would have quit a loooong time ago, because there simply is none

 

congrats Mike, this all sounds like great ideas and i am glad someone else has stepped up to make our events better. i cant imagine how hard it must be for Kyle to better our events when he is tied up with so many other responsibilities. let me know if i can help in any way.-Charlie

 

most vehicles have crumple zones designed around them to protect you in the event of an impact.

take my 240sx that had no stitch welding done, for example. i hit the front of teh car at about 70 miles per hour impact speed, and did not hit anywehre teh cage was at, and i was fine after hitting. 240sxs have all sorts of engineering and impact beams and all this stuff to protect you in the event of a major accident.

as long as the door reinforcements were not removed i dont see a problem with allowing people to tandem as long as they have the helmet and stuff. i would honestly like to see

at least a roll bar with a proper harness attached to it, though. like an autopower or mazworx roll bar, with a 5 point harness and good helmet minimum for tandem. i think that's a fair choice.

 

honestly though

i don't see how that 4-point 'roll bar' is going to do much for you in a side door impact.

but then again i'm a business major, not an engineer so I could be wrong.

 

I don't see how one car can crash into the car sliding in front of it at 50 mph and do much damage?
Helmet ~ Reasonable
Extinguisher ~ Reasonable
Cage ~ Driver's own safety.
Harness ~ Reasonable

 

(thanks for your Email by the way)

Yeah, it would seem like the relative speeds wouldn't be so great, but if two cars rub for whatever reason and one goes over the berm and the other into a tree or something, that cage may make all the difference. If anyone has seen any of the Drift Tengoku team battle segments, you know how rediculous some of the tandem accidents can get.

In followup to the cage issue: to satisfy the requirements of those who make the final call on the tandem eledgibility, we will need to require rollcages, and this means 6+ point with door-area protection. That means something like this: http://www.festivegarage.com/store/p...3d50409762bccb

Festive Garage is a part of DGtrials and we don't really make anything off of the cages to begin with ($615 for a SCCA/NASA/DGTA approved 6-point is pretty economical), so prices couldn't be cut all that much, but we may be able to save on shipping costs - If the cages were shipped to a business (XAT, Enjuku, whoever) as a package, we could probably save some serious bread since the boxes are mega-fuck-you-oversized anyway. Ordinarily shipping is $100 and asks that you allow 4 weeks for delivery...

The cage issue is just a part of the road to tandem - equally (if not more) important is the driver control required to execute tandem.

 

oops i forgot my cage.. so after the wreck.. i hopped in my car and drifted some more .

TANDEM RULEZ

 

^DUDE YOU GOT LUCKY THAT TIME. CONGRATS Mike.