The Rain Light & MSA Rant Thread

[midgetman]

Anyone seen Motorsports Now which dropped through the letter box? Page 45, new rule, FIA rain light mandatory w.e.f. 1/1/08. Another tax on competing.

Cheapest I can find is made by Lifeline and it costs £84.95 + VAT - one hundred quid for a freakin light?????????

It's also pug ugly. It'll look awful on an historic car.

Why the change? Was there a problem with the old rule?

Still, on the bright side I'm a Lifeline stockist On the basis that virtually every competition car in the country will have to change, hope they've got good stocks.

[Tim Falce]

Merlin and Demon Tweaks do a 50mm circular one that is priced from around £38 IIRC. You can get a similar one from Maplin for £9.99 but you need a resistor in the wiring to stop the diodes from blowing

[midgetman]

Yurst, I know about the cheaper ones but if you look at GPR and DT they say "not FIA approved".

The actual rule says:

"An FIA homologated rear warning light must be fitted"

[bdwoody]

so what is the difference between a fia homologated rain light and a bright red light from from dt or for that matter a 21 watt bulb in the standard tail light / fog light unit ?

[terence]

I know its an expensive pain,but I,ve had one since the new ruling came out in January,got a good deal with LifeLine but I needed a new Extinguisher too!

[dtype38]

Now here's an intersting page for you... all the FIA approved rain lights as of the middle of this year http://www.fia.com/resources/documen...ain_Lights.pdf Of more interest perhaps is that the little round one that DT say isn't approved seems to be the same as the one half way down the second page specifically listed as supplied by Merlin Motorsport at Castle Combe. They currently have it listed at about £45 inc vat.

As for the retro look midgetman, I used a rectangular grid led type light and cut open the casing to retrieve the circuit board and light grid. I then took the bulb and lens out of my old rectangular 21W chrome housing and bunged the led grid in with lots of clear silicon. Has worked a treat ever since and looks the part too :-))

[midgetman]

Cheers dtype38, I must admit I'd only gone thro the GPR/DT sites. Nice tip on the fitment too.

Looks like I won't be troubling Lifeline for some stocks then, but no-one tell Steven at Merlin or the price's bound to rise

[Alan Cherry]

Originally Posted by midgetman

Anyone seen Motorsports Now which dropped through the letter box? Page 45, new rule, FIA rain light mandatory w.e.f. 1/1/08. Another tax on competing.

Cheapest I can find is made by Lifeline and it costs £84.95 + VAT - one hundred quid for a freakin light?????????

It's also pug ugly. It'll look awful on an historic car.

Why the change? Was there a problem with the old rule?

Still, on the bright side I'm a Lifeline stockist On the basis that virtually every competition car in the country will have to change, hope they've got good stocks.

Any Lawyers out there ? writing says FIA rrear warning light must be fitted located within 10cm of the centre line. It then goes on to say Vehicles fitted withfull width bodywork may alternatively use two lights equally located about the vehicle centre line. Does not state that alternative has to be FIA approved - Original warning lights as provided by manafacturer ? Any suggestions ?

[MGDavid]

Originally Posted by Alan Cherry

Any Lawyers out there ? writing says FIA rrear warning light must be fitted located within 10cm of the centre line. It then goes on to say Vehicles fitted withfull width bodywork may alternatively use two lights equally located about the vehicle centre line. Does not state that alternative has to be FIA approved - Original warning lights as provided by manafacturer ? Any suggestions ?

Alan, that's the way I read it too - if you have a pair they don't need to be FIA...

[Al Weyman]

Is this for FIA events only not club events in the UK? It would be nice if someone could start a thread listing exactly what has to be changed for 2008 club events, I know I am into new seatbelts,mine have been worn about 20 times so thats ridiculous, maybe new seat and maybe a new race suit, prehaps an extinguisher as well maybe I will just do trackdays as this is getting silly.

[graeme]

Originally Posted by Al Weyman

Is this for FIA events only not club events in the UK?

Haven't got the mag to hand but it's for all circuit racing events.

[midgetman]

>>>>>>>>>Alan, that's the way I read it too - if you have a pair they don't need to be FIA...

The pessimists among us - and I'm privileged to count myself in that proud contingent - understood this to mean 2 x FIA lights, given that the whole instruction is concerning FIA lights.

This is simply cut'n'paste work from the exisitng Blue Book.

[tristancliffe]

Leave your current rain lights alone, and use the price difference for an FIA one to bribe scrutineers

[brickkicker]

In fairness they have a justified reason for bringing it in. And £45 is not a huge amount when you consider the cost of fuel tyres etc.

[graeme]

Scrutineers I've spoken to prefer a fog lamp with a bulb it, as it can be seen from an angle and not from just directly behind.

[AndyV]

Originally Posted by brickkicker

In fairness they have a justified reason for bringing it in. And £45 is not a huge amount when you consider the cost of fuel tyres etc.

Thats £45 In addition to fuel tyres etc and to me £45 is a significant amount of money that I don't want to be spending on replacing my rain light for one exactly the same with an FIA sticker on.

There does now seem to be an annual "FIA Tax" that is applied in rule changes every year to eke out a few more quid from competitors. I wonder what it will be next year? FIA catalytic converters to be fitted to all cars perhaps.

Andy

[graeme]

Originally Posted by AndyV

FIA catalytic converters to be fitted to all cars perhaps.

Er...yes...actually (well not FIA-standard, but post-2000 cars need cats - the MSA seem to have just ignored any issues put forward, like road-legal carb-fuelled cars on sale in 2000).

[Al Weyman]

Originally Posted by brickkicker

In fairness they have a justified reason for bringing it in. And £45 is not a huge amount when you consider the cost of fuel tyres etc.

Please dont throw that old turkey up again I am frankly sick and tired of hearing this argument put forward to justify anything from hans to hikes in entry fees. This requirement is just a bloody joke. So now to add to the list I have to chuck out a perfectly good race seat, an equally good race suit, a harness that are like new and ditto an extinguisher system and now a perfectly good hi intensity rear light. Times that by two cars and its seriously making me wonder if I will bother now. I use the original high level light on one of my cars and if it was OK for the safety conscious yanks of the 80's and 90's why not the FI ruddy A.

[midgetman]

>>>>>>>>>>In fairness they have a justified reason for bringing it in

Which is?

[brickkicker]

So now to add to the list I have to chuck out a perfectly good race seat, an equally good race suit, a harness that are like new and ditto an extinguisher system and now a perfectly good hi intensity rear light.

Whats wrong with your race seat?
As far as I know they havent removed any race suits from the list this year so why do you need to change that?
I guess your harness date has gone out for this year, you could always sell it on e-bay as the bangers/hot rod people will have them.
Whats the proplem with your fire system? Dont think there are going to be any rule changes on those either.

Thats £45 In addition to fuel tyres etc and to me £45 is a significant amount of money that I don't want to be spending on replacing my rain light for one exactly the same with an FIA sticker on.

I understand that these are all extra costs and costs that are not included in peoples season budget, and I dont think its an old turkey but the MSA are being forced into 'improving' safety to mitigate any risk of legal action.
Now we dont always agree (well most of the time dont ever agree) that the things they do are the best way forward but we just have to work with what we are given.
We could always do with saving a few extra pounds for things like super traps

[Al Weyman]

They are all dated I believe, I will check it out later but it was mentioned this season if its not the case then fair enough but I still dont understand why if you are using the OEM light that the MSA or who ever would be open for litigation if someone ran into the back of you.

[midgetman]

My understanding is seats have a finite life on them. Mine runs out too, it's marked on the homologation label.

[brickkicker]

Originally Posted by Al Weyman

They are all dated I believe, I will check it out later but it was mentioned this season if its not the case then fair enough but I still dont understand why if you are using the OEM light that the MSA or who ever would be open for litigation if someone ran into the back of you.

I think that you will find that your seat, overalls and fire bottle will be ok for next year if you had no problems with them last year. Even the servicing of your fire bottle is advisory, as I remember it is only recomended that you have it checked and re-filled.
I agree that if you are using the OEM lights then they should be good enough. I think the problem has come around by those who replace them with some rubbish lights, after all the current rule of 21 watts is not that easy to police.

[terence]

I,m in for new belts and seat for next year,where do all these perfectly good bit,s go?

[Al Weyman]

In the skip!