Does anybody here know what is the legal limit of noise from cars? We got a complain at our local event last Sunday, and had a town official over looking over our shoulders. And of course without knowing or care what we're really doing, he didn't like what he saw and thing went up the rank. Now we have an email from the town administrator saying whether this is a public or private event, and we may have to have a permit if it's a public event. Which mean they'll just shut us down. Word has that the administrator is a dick and a dictator too. Hopefully we can take that out of the equation by allowing only club member to run the event, thus becoming a private event (which already is, there may be some misunderstanding there), but would like to make sure we have something to back us up when somebody is in a bad mood and look for trouble again. We've already had cops stopping over before the event, and threaten to arrest us if we run it, for no particular reason really, so it's going to be an uphill battle. We'll also try to play the card that we're providing driver education and providing organized event to get racing off the street; if we can get the officials care enough to listen.

I guess some people prefer street racing over a little noise from a few hours of organized event on a Sunday afternoon

Any experience on how to handle these kind of problem would also be appreciated.

 

Find some dirt on the butt muncher and provide it to your local news station. That will give him other things to worry about.

 

How about put your head on straight and sound, talk, and act like an adult, not like a kid trying to get away with something behind someones back. Accept the responsibility for the event you're trying to organize with your friends and go through the required channels in the community you live to get it understood and hopefully approved, regardless of what your personal opinions of the town officials, the cops, and the rules, not to mention your neighbors that have started complaining.

From your own explaination of events, it does appear they (town's people) may be on to something that needs a bit of 'supervision'. Anyway what are your other choices? Going out on a limb doing otherwise only gives you a great place to take a fall.

That's my "experience on how to handle these kind of problem(sic)"

 

I'm relatively new to the club, but the club has been around for 50 years on the dot this year, so it's nothing new. All the events are very well controlled, nobody's doing any donuts or anything like that. There maybe a handful of houses about half a mile away, but that area is also by the hwy and the mall, so it's alway noisy to begin with. The organizer had gone through all the channels and the events was approved. It's not like a bunch of us just decided to race on a parking lot. The thing that get us was they are fine with the Vette club that ran before, since that a private club; but now they consider us to be a public club. So there's some misunderstanding somewhere. It may not be that big of a deal afterall.

We will be talking and writing letters to the officials, and maybe the site wants to work with the town on this, which is even better since they worked it out with the town in the first place and have more power. There's really only one way to handle this, just wonder about other people's experiences.

As for sound, that's really what I'm asking about here is if anybody know of a guideline of how many dB at what distance. All cars have mufflers. It's really not any worse than anything on the street with only 2 cars at any given time. If anything, it maybe the tires that freak some people out.

 

Read section 6: http://www.sdr-scca.com/solo2/docs/2007_Supp_Reg.pdf

 

Without looking at it, I'm guessing that Jason's link is to the San Diego SCCA region's sound policy. That works. Other regions and other clubs have other polices...and they may vary from site to site. Ultimately, it's an arbitrary measure of sound measured in a consistent manner and the club taking steps to ensure that the limits aren't violated.

We don't have a sound policy at our local events and haven't had any problems. The last noise complaint against us that I know of was three years ago...and it was about the PA system at a National Tour that we were hosting that ran late on Saturday.

 

If its an SCCA event then you should also communicate with the National office about it as I think they might help out.

 

ultimately, it is a public relations exercise because if they want you out they will get you out regardless of the actual noise your event is putting out.

 

The organizers will be talking with the town officials, and we should know exactly what we're dealing with in the next couple days. Hopefully we don't lose this site.

I just came back from Evo school at Miller Park in Milwaukee, there were no less than 3 cops stopped by and wondering what's going on. You would think they knew already as many clubs use that site there. They were pretty cool with it though.

 

Let me know the next auto-x event you go to. I may want to give it a shot.