Larry Herman

Is it just me or does anyone else have a fundamental problem with the naming of this product?

Would you buy this car? XXX for sale with a freshly rebuilt Grenade motor, Toothless trans, Spacey shifter, Wild Ride suspension and Impact Racing safety equipment.

kurt M

Bingo. Regardless of what you might think of the standards or SFI if you say you are following the rules you need to follow the rules.

Veloce Raptor

It is a HORRIBLE name, and I have never had any interest in their products.









Professional Racing and Driving Coach

Sterling Doc

I'm all for having another agency along the lines of the Snell Foundation for certification in the US. That said, it, it seems to me that with their virtual monopoly on the certification market, SFI could charge a lot more than a few HUNDRED dollars for certification, and $3 per suit if they were in it to get rich.

ltc

There is always FIA certification ...

Geo

Boy howdy

WHB Porsche

Shakedown? Please. Try capitalism. SFI spends their own money to come up with standards. If racing organizations CHOOSE to require those standards, then good for SFI. If a company wishes to market their products to people who race in those organizations, then they CHOOSE to enter into an agreement with SFI. Nobody's forcing anybody to do anything.

Impact counterfeiting SFI's labels is the same as somebody hiring you to coach them and then just not paying. It's stealing.

Geo

<cough>bull****<cough>

I agree there. Impact is sleazy too.

WHB Porsche

Yep, SFI goes down to the SCCA and NASA offices with a bunch of thugs and strongarms them into mandating their standards.

It doesn't how much lobbying, convincing, kickbacks, etc. go on - you don't have to race with an organization that requires SFI and you don't have to buy SFI gear. Where's the shakedown?

9.5 Degrees

My understanding is that harnesses that have FIA cert are good for 5 years and those with SFI are only good for 2 years, true?

Impact or anyone else that retails safety gear is in the "TRUST" business. If I get in a crash, i have to TRUST that the helmet, suit, gloves, HANS, etc. will work as they were advertised.

Even if the suits would pass certification with the falsified SFI tags, this shows just one step on what Impact would do to circumvent the system. Couple this with the HANS anchors and it shows a pattern that is not going the right way.

I would ask Bill SImpson if the savings of appx. $2.80 per tag was enough to soil his company's reputation.

PedalFaster

To those of you (Geo, Veloce Raptor) who think SFI is wrong to charge for establishing standards -- how exactly do you propose it pay for its activities otherwise?

I think Porsche is evil for expecting me to pay for a GT3 instead of just giving me one. I mean, come on! What a shakedown scheme!

Veloce Raptor

I never suggested they were wrong. I, of all people, am a supreme capitalist.

But if you read their original "decertification", it was NOT because the Impact stuff was unsafe. It was because Impact had (allegedly) not paid SFI for use of its logo. Now that money has apparently changed hands and the "decertification" repealed, at least for the 2009 & 2010 products, all is well again. Same Impact products, so I guess they were safe to begin with even before SFI got its money?

THAT, my friend, is a sleazy as Impact's behavior.









Professional Racing and Driving Coach

ltc

Some additional comments and information....

http://ekartingnews.com/news_info.ph...edbcfae0717c7c

On Friday, March 26, the SFI Foundation issued a Notice of Decertification; Notice of Cease and Desist, and a notice terminating all contracts and participation to IMPACT Racing. Since then, the two parties entered into litigation in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana. The parties have agreed on the following, sent out in a joint release:

April 1, 2010 - Impact Racing, LLC and SFI Foundation, Inc., in the litigation pending in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana, have agreed that:

1. Impact Racing, LLC has provided sworn testimony that, upon review and investigation, no counterfeit SFI Conformance Labels have been used on Impact Racing products during the production years of 2009 and 2010.

2. Impact Racing, LLC has provided sworn testimony that, upon review and investigation, all Impact Racing products manufactured and sold during the production years 2009 and 2010 meet SFI specifications.

3. Based upon this sworn testimony, the decertification against Impact Racing products for the production years 2009 and 2010 is lifted. The decertification of the production years prior to 2009 and 2010 remains in effect. The parties will continue to work cooperatively in an effort to resolve the issues relating to decertification in these years.

4. Impact Racing stands behind the safety of all products it has manufactured and to which SFI Conformance Labels have been affixed. SFI will continue to monitor compliance with product specifications.

5. Impact Racing, LLC and SFI Foundation, Inc. will cooperate in determining whether any Impact Racing product bears a counterfeit SFI Conformance Label and if any safety issue exists in regard to products manufactured prior to 2009 and 2010.

6. If any Impact Racing product does not bear the date of manufacture the purchaser or user is instructed to immediately contact Impact Racing who will provide verification of the date of manufacture. Impact Racing, LLC will immediately notify SFI Foundation, Inc. of this occurrence. Impact Racing, LLC and SFI Foundation, Inc. will work with the sanctioning bodies to determine the best method for product users to present verification of the date of manufacture.

VaSteve

What does all this mean to the sport? I watched some of the 'truck' race last night. All the teams use the impact stuff and were still using it. Did they change their standards or ignore this ongoing issue or what?

TheOtherEric

It kind of sounds like SFI may have jumped the gun. For their sake, I sure hope they have a STRONG basis for decertifying Impact. If not, they're going to get royally StrekStrekStrekStreked in court, as well they should. They did some huge damage to Impact's reputation last week.