Englishtown Raceway Park noise regs are driving me nuts....

[Injuneer]

The drag strip in Englishtown NJ had been there for 40 years, but the neighbors, who moved into their $$$1/2-million+ McMansions have been trying to shut it down, for the last 5 years. In a compromise, about 3 years ago, the track agreed to run "muffled cars only" on most dates. They keep the "unmuffled" quota for things like the NHRA Nationals.....

So.... 2 years ago, it was "no open exhaust, must pass 90dB(A) at 100-ft in tech". My car made it by the limit on 2002, with just Borla XL-1 shorties hanging on the header collectors. But the enforcement was so bad, that on SLP Customer Aprreciation Day, the SLP LS1 "test mule" was thrown off the track for running cutouts.

In 2003, they up the ante, requiring that the exhaust must "extend past the rear seam of the driver/passenger door jambs." And they said "no more collector mufflers". I go to Mufflex and have the longer exhaust pipes added, so they end past the door.

Now I get the regs for 2004....

-All race vehicles competing at Raceway Park during muffled street events will be required to be "Street Muffled".

-All exhaust units must extend past the rear seam of the driver/passenger door jambs

-Bullet or collector mufflers will not be permitted.

-The more exhaust pipe after the muffler the better

-Turndowns are recommended

-All mufflers must be baffled type with 2 or 3 baffles recommended

-Raceway Park defines "street muffled" as "If you're too loud to drive on the street without the threat of getting pulled over, don't race on a "street night"

-All vehicles will proceed to tech inspection. Any that seem too loud will be tested using a Radio Shack type dB meter set to slow A. The inspector will stand 100-ft behind the vehicle. The racer will then rev the engine to 5,500rpm and hold it for a few seconds. This process will be done 2 or 3 times for accuracy.

-If the meter reads above 90dB at tech, you are too loud to race..... you will recieve a refund.

-Those vehicles that pass tech inspection, but then exceed the dB limit on the strip will be disqualified, without refund.

Not sure if my setup will pass or not, since the Borlas do not have any baffles. I do have a set of Dynatech turndowns with noise reduction cones in them, but I don't know it they will work.

I notice GM High Tech Performance magazine has increased to 4 "EFI Shootout" events this year (4/3, 7/10, 8/28, 10/23), and SLP Day is scheduled for October 9..... so its questionable how many of those I can run without further exhaust system mods.

I guess it won't be long until all we hear going down the track will be the annoying buzz and drone of Hondas with fart pipe exhausts.....

End of vent!!

[fastTa]

This is kind of like the "people who move in to a house next to the airport" theory!

They are cracking down here as well at San Antonio Raceway. All bracket type classes and true street classes are now required to have mufflers. They are not going to the extreme that the Englishtown track is though with all those rules you posted. Yikes! That is getting strict when they post rules that specific.

That is just simply overboard I feel. I don't think they realize how much money and how many people will have to modify their exhaust just to comply with the new rules.

Thank god there are no exhaust restrictions in the Big Dawg class I am going to run in here!

You know what's funny is how the Englishtown rules say that the tech will test the db level from 100ft behind the car while at 5500 rpm. I guess they don't realize that the exhaust is drasticlly louder when the motor is under a loud as opposed to just sitting still and revving

90db doesn't leave much room, hope you pass tech Fred.

[Injuneer]

Actually, they do recognize the engine is louder when its under load..... They also check the cars on the track.

"Those vehicles that pass tech inspection, but then exceed the dB limit on the strip will be disqualified, without refund."

What puzzles me is how they seperate the effects of two engines putting out max dB's simultaneously....... which car exceded the limit????

The "100-ft" does have some room in it, as well, since the noise levels drop off with the square of the distance. I did some checks with a Radio Shack noise meter when I had it on the dyno, but the effects of the building made the results meaningless, even though I was able to stand 100-ft behind the car. Plus, they like to close the overhead door to about 2-ft off the floor when they do dyno pulls, because there is an appartment building right behind their parking lot.....

[KnightFire]

Fred,
I think that rule is posted just to scare people, there is NO way they could be able to tell which car is louder running down the track, and I know it's bad news for N2O users too, I know my car gets significantly louder when I hit the "go" button. I just can't see how they could prove it was you, unless you totally smoke the guy in the other lane. Which probably happens more often than not.



This dB rule is why I'll never run at an event at NJ...its sad too, they have awesome events there! I know my car wouldn't pass, (especially now w/Hooker LTs, no cat, 3.5" Spintech with a cut out) so I don't even attempt to go. It would be interesting to see just what the dB is that she puts out though...

KnightFire

[Injuneer]

The "check the dB on the track" is primarilly there to control the guys who open their cutouts after tech.

I guess the easiest thing to do is to go to one of the other tracks, like Atco or Island Dragway. Island is sort of "the dragstrip that time forgot"..... tucked away in the sod farms of north-western NJ. I really like it, in spite of the fact you have to make a 270-deg turn through a narrow gate to enter the apron and the burnout box, the lanes are narrow and there is not a lot of shutdown room. Oh, and they haven't changed the boards on the bleachers in the 40 years that I have been going there, so it isn't unusual to get a splinter in your butt . I don't think they have changed the 'burgers either. But.... reasonable tech, no noise limits, and very few imports.

Unfortunately I live 6 miles from the gate at Englishtown. When they have "unmuffled" days.... Sundays and the Nationals.... I can hear them at my house. And although Sundays are "unmuffled", the entry fee is $100 because that is the day they run all their regional points events and they only want the serious racers out on the track.

But there are a lot of F-Body people who like the GM High-Tech and SLP events, so its nice to be able to hang out and race. I know George Baxter wants to hit a few of those this year, but there is no way the car would pass techdB limits at 1,000-ft . Would be nice to see some serious iron running deep in the 8's......

[Jeff_in_Atl]

Yea we have the same thing happening here in Atlanta with the regional airport. http://www.pdkairport.org/ it used to be Camp Gordon, a World War I Army training base. The first runway was finished in 1941 so it was here when the surrounding area was farmland. As a matter of fact, there is still barbwire along the backside of my property from where it used to be a dairy farm before the house was built in 1961. They built houses around the airport and now they are complaining about the noise. They even have their own web site. http://www.pdkwatch.org/ . It reminds me of that commercial about making sure you get a good real-estate salesperson and a jet flies over and takes off the top of the wind vane. I live close enough that I could hit them with a rock as they fly over. It doesn't bother me at all. Now a days the jets are quieter than the prop planes. It was really weird after 9/11 when they grounded all of the air traffic for so long. It really felt like something was wrong. No con trails. No whistle of a jet engine. I never even saw any CAPS flying out of Dobbins. I know the damage was already done but everybody was so unnerved, seeing a F15 flying over would have at least showed that somebody was looking out for us. I did see 1 huey fly over during that time period.

Here's a funny little story. My dog is ~11 years old now. He's very used to the airplanes and helicopters flying over. One day I was walking him out front and you could hear the groan of propellers off in the distance slowing coming toward me. Well there's only one thing that flies that slow. The Goodyear blimp. Well it started appearing over the trees and I felt the leash move. I looked down and my dog was backing up (no back up beeper). He was shaking. I have never even seen him look up before at planes. He watched that thing till it was out of site. It flew over maybe a dozen times that day and every time he watched it like a hawk. Bizarre dog. What can I say. His name is Ford. LOL

Back to Fred's e-mail, I have no sympathy for the people who bought/built around the race track.

[TimeLord]

90 Dbs ????

That is insanely low,,,,,glad our tracks are still out in the sticks!!!!!!

[Al 96 Ram Air T/A]

Hey Fred...

Fred...


What about using an electric cutout? At least then, you could "tune" the noise in the tech lane and leave it for the track. You might loose some performance, but at least you can decrease the risk of being kicked off the track and loosing your admission fee...

[Kevin - Blown 95 TA]

Yeah, we have a 50 y/0 gun club in the same shape. Rich homeowners who built on discounted lots almost sued us broke. In the end we won, but they still petition the town against us, and our club gets vandalized rtegularly.

I've been wondering about E-town and how they run the Top Fuel cars. Still you guys are the bread & butter without which they wouldn't be able to exist.

IMHO, these people who move in next to airports, interstates, gun clubs, & race tracks ought to be paying all of the bills to build the walls between them and the noise which was there first. The rest of the taxpayers shouldn't be paying for it, and the various noisy organizations shouldn't have to pay for it either. The argument they use is that the noise is getting worse, and that may be true, however, there was still noise there before anyway.

I'd love to hear a judge say "Your lawsuit is frivolous. You should have enough sense not to move into a property next to a racetrack if you don't like noise. Don't expect others to pay for your stupidity. Case dismissed."

[Joe 1320]

Fred, it's the high frequencies that peg the meters. Additional tubing bends can cut some of the highs. Maybe even a crossover just prior to the mufflers.

[fastTa]

Originally posted by Joe 1320
Fred, it's the high frequencies that peg the meters. Additional tubing bends can cut some of the highs. Maybe even a crossover just prior to the mufflers.

The devices used at the track measure spl's (sound pressure levels) or more commonly call decibels (db) and NOT the frequency.

Frequency is completely unrelated to SPL's. Low frequency harmonics can produce and most times exceed higher frequency harmonics. This is why bass in a car will produce much higher spl readings than a handful of tweeters.

[Injuneer]

But the SPL meters are calibrated to weight different frequencies at different levels to arrive at the cumulative SPL. In the list of rules above, they cite "slow A" weighting..... that defines the sensitivity of the meter to various frequencies. "A" is unlike "C" which is use for much "audio" work, and for some OSHA enforcement SPL measurements.

Frequency definitely is taken into consideration in the way the SPL is measured.

[fastTa]

Originally posted by Injuneer
But the SPL meters are calibrated to weight different frequencies at different levels to arrive at the cumulative SPL. In the list of rules above, they cite "slow A" weighting..... that defines the sensitivity of the meter to various frequencies. "A" is unlike "C" which is use for much "audio" work, and for some OSHA enforcement SPL measurements.

Frequency definitely is taken into consideration in the way the SPL is measured.

I was just trying to say that a higher frequecy does not automatically equate to a higher db.

Man you weren't kidding about Englishtown cracking down on noise. There isn't a track here in Texas that calibrates thier sound measuring euipment to plot according to the a or c weighting thank god!

The reason they are using the a weighting is to simulate how the human ear would perceive the harmonic being measured since it is people who are complaining. The only drawback to that is it can give false high readings which isn't good for you Fred .

[Joe 1320]

Whoa.... even though bass contains more energy, the high pitches peg the db meters due to higher frequency, harmonics, amount of total energy produced, and meter settings. Sound is what I do. Don't confuse what happens in recordings vs what happens to a db meter when subjected to sound waves. Frequency is not completely unrelated to SPLs. Maybe in a perfect world it isn't related, but since when is the world perfect. Ask the top guns that run muffled class. They will tell you the same thing. The high frequencies are being cancelled out in their exhaust system and that is what is keeping them under the db limit. Most due to what was mantioned.... the human ear is different that an electronic device. That is why the bd meter settings used are more sensative to the highs.

If I had to cross this same bridge, I would try to figure out a bolt in crossover just in front of the mufflers. The idea is to get each bank to share mufflers, eliminating the need for a different muffler style. Clearing the torque arm will be the trick. Having done this before I can vouch for the fact it does quiet the exhaust down.

[Injuneer]

I always wanted to try David Vizzard's true 180-deg headers..... the four tubes that merge into each collector are not the four tubes from one bank of the engine, but a combination of equal length, left and right bank tubes that puts the four tubes in each collector in a true 180deg firing order. Any idea what that would sound like? What would an X-pipe do for that setup?

If you notice, the turndowns on my setup are not welded, but use clamps. Denny at Mufflex aimed them where his experience said they would produce the minimum sound level. I guess when I have the time, I should fire the car up, and use my lil' ol' Radio Shack meter to see what the angular relationship of the turndowns has to noise level, and whether the Dynatech "noise cones" do anything at all.