I have a top flight 1966 BB . I love to drive the car and often take my 13-year-old with me. I would like to preserve the top flight status but would like to add harnesses and head rests.This is an early car with no harness supports in the wheel wells. Has this issue been addressed and how would the addition of these items effect the cars top flight status.
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Re: C2 Safety
Answer to the question depends on where you are, oddly enough. The NCRS Judging Reference Manual (the white book) has two different provisions for such....
First, Section 4, Rule 14, Added Or Deleted Options mandates full deduction scoring for "The detectable addition OR deletion of any regular production vehicle option subsequent to factory assembly...." This means IF judges can tell (naked eye exam) the items you've added to the car were put on after its original build, expect full deduction(s) for originality and condition on those parts. Use a current copy of the NCRS Flight Score Sheet to determine how many points are involved (it won't be much out of 4500 points possible)....
Second, the same club rule book in Section 2, Rule 25, Safety, Security, Other Allowance & Scoring Bonus states:
"The following are allowed with no scoring deduction"
Then adds in a list the following:
"B. State of Federally required safety equipment, State required current inspection and/or registration sticker."
Now, our NCRS brothers in the UK face this dilema daily. The Catch-22 is their Parliament 'delights' in authoring retroactive legislation and in the automotive vein the concept 'if it's good for current production cars, it must be just as good for older cars' is often embraced.
There, owning a car implies annual taxation (source of government revenue) and, with few exceptions, the car must be registered each year. In order to register, the vehicle must complete a MOT (Ministery Of Transportation) safety inspection and certain items (e.g. 3-point seat belt harness, Etc.) are required regardless of whether or not certain cars were originally manufactured with them.
So, on the other 'side of the pond' it's argued that Section 2, Rule 25, has precidence over Section 4, Rule 14. This makes 'some' owner/dealer inspired option additions 'street legal' because there IS State/Federal mandate to support their inclusion on the vehicle. Clear as mud, eh?
Bottom line, if you add or delete options NCRS has a provision for this. Each time a Corvette is presented for Flight Judging, the owner is given an NCRS Judging Summary Sheet to fill out. On this sheet there's a declaration section with a blank space to list 'exceptions'.
This is a form of 'confessional' that remains on file with NCRS. Judges may not see or use the information owners provide in this statement and have to judge the car as they see it on that day. So, if you add or delete options and do it so well that it's undetectable your score is unaffected.... But, to protect yourself from a successor owner crying 'fraud' down the ownership chain, USE the declaration section to document your vehicle's exceptions.... -
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