Heads up on SCCA changes regarding floor mats

Chad Culbertson · **Posted:** Mon Mar 21, 2016 9:23 pm

Dick was kind enough to point this out to me at Cary in regards to floor mats and even printed the section out for me.

I knew from last year they were considering changing this rule. I would occasionally get some flack by making people take them out, so i'm honestly kinda happy about it.

If the mats aren't fastened by oem hooks then of course they still must come out, but that's a little easier for me to argue.

I'm going to start following these rules from the 2016 SCCA draft rules unless somebody else has any objections. I know they're just draft currently but I don't really suspect this part will change.

2. Pedal operation must not be impeded. Driver’s side floor mat must be
removed unless securely mounted. OE fasteners designed to prevent the
mat from moving forward satisfy this requirement if they are in good
working order

RickyBeam · **Posted:** Tue Mar 22, 2016 9:49 pm

It's safer to simply remove them. I don't understand why people have such an aversion to this.

Bernie Baake · **Posted:** Tue Mar 22, 2016 10:56 pm

After experiencing a stuck wide open throttle, due to an after market carpet, at an autocross in Laurinburg. I would strongly agree that mats need to be removed. It's a small inconvenience to keep everyone safe.
P.S, brakes will not stop a car under WOT!!!!

Richard Casto · **Posted:** Wed Mar 23, 2016 7:14 am

Bernie Baake wrote:

P.S, brakes will not stop a car under WOT!!!!

I am being a bit pedantic, but I would hate for anyone to read this and then feel their brakes are useless in a WOT situation. Generally speaking your brakes WILL stop your car at WOT. It will increase stopping distance and maybe substantially so when in a high HP car and at high speeds (100 mph+). What doesn't work is hesitant or less than full application (either accidentally, or something under the brake pedal) that may overheat them quickly without slowing. Once overheated then yes you have to use other methods such as turn off engine, pull out of gear, etc.

See this article for some test results using a few different cars at different speeds...
http://www.caranddriver.com/features/ho ... celeration

And I agree it's just easier to remove mats to remove any doubt. I do wonder if there are some newer OEM mats that are so firmly fixed that it may be a real hassle to remove them.

Richard

DickRasmussen · **Posted:** Wed Mar 23, 2016 7:30 am

This topic was sometimes known as "floormat gate" :lol:

or something similar in 2014 and 2015 after SCCA "clarified" a vague rule on loose objects to specifically require removing driver side mats for the 2015 season.

It turned out that MANY serious longstanding autocrossers (including myself) do not want to have to remove mats which are properly secured by high quality oem fasteners. The primary reason is that the underlying oem carpet tends to be easily damaged and/or hard or impractical or expensive to replace. A secondary reason is that we simply don't want to have to clean the carpet for no good reason. :lol:

There is no safety advantage to removing mats which are properly secured with oem fasteners, at least in late model cars like my 2015 Mustang and previous 2012 Mustang.

As a result of member input the rule was quickly revised for the 2016 season.

FYI even though the 2016 rules posted on the SCCA site are identified as "draft" they are not subject to change for this year other than typo, etc. correction. Any actual rule change for the future must go through the normal SCCA rule change process for implementation in 2017 or later.

Edit to add in response to Richard's question: The oem mats in late model Mustangs are a "hassle" to remove if you have old whimpy finger muscles.

BriceJohnson · **Joined:** Thu Apr 13, 2006 7:33 am **Posts:** 2230

To be fair, we aren't an SCCA club, so we can make you remove your floormats if we want to...

:deadhorse:

RodneyWright · **Posted:** Wed Mar 23, 2016 8:09 am

I was always instructed, that from a car tech standpoint, if the mats were pinned you were good to go. I have to agree w/ Dick, modern car carpets are pretty poor quality and can be damaged with little effort. My vote is, if the mats are factory pinned, then you should be ok.

Chuck Branscomb · **Posted:** Wed Mar 23, 2016 8:43 am

Same on the E90 M3 -- the factory mats are going nowhere. They have a crisscross velcro like bottom and then they are pinned solid to the floor by large fasteners at the rear. It's a pia to get them out, and it stresses the attachment points in the back. I agree with Bernie though on aftermarket mats with non-factory retaining methods (if they even have any), but that is a much different scenario than the SCCA is describing it appears.

Bernie Baake · **Posted:** Wed Mar 23, 2016 8:44 pm

After market carpets never seem to fit as well the originals. I cut all the carpet 2" away from the gas pedal after the wild ride. And in the autocross venue, the brakes will not stop you until you're in deep dodo. Pulling the car out of gear is not the best option as you'll be picking up engine parts. Kill the ignition, and pre-plan it so if or when it happens you'll react faster.JMHO

Steven Spampinato · **Posted:** Tue Apr 19, 2016 3:20 pm

I just take them out. I deal with risk all day, the less the better on my free time.

Chad Culbertson · **Posted:** Tue Apr 19, 2016 5:55 pm

Steven Spampinato wrote:

I just take them out. I deal with risk all day, the less the better on my free time.

Same here, it's pretty uncommon people give me grief about it, but i've had a couple of folks who were really adverse to it.

I'll still obviously be checking floor mats and anything that looks suspect will need to come out.

Rob Keehner · **Posted:** Thu Apr 21, 2016 8:02 pm

These are the same people with plastic on the couch at home. :lol:

TonyFaubus · **Joined:** Fri Jan 22, 2016 12:20 am **Posts:** 25

I have a large hole in my factory carpet, in my case safer using the Subaru rubber mats, they're heavy and don't move a bit.
... and my plastic on my sofa is very nice plastic, you should see the video of the interesting sounds it makes when my guests fart lol :thumbsup:

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Heads up on SCCA changes regarding floor mats

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