SE types and honored visitors from neighboring regions. Update on the Rainlight rule. As announced last Spring, SE started requiring an FIA certified rainlight as of the Sep Roebling event. There’s been discussion, for the past several months re. having the rainlight provide an indication of braking. That’s in cement now, to go into effect on 1Jan19.
The SE Rainlight rule will require “Steady-on always, blinking upon braking” behavior.
Here’s the rub. FIA certified lights tested so far don’t want to do what SE wants them to do. The light, out of the box, is designed to handle 3 modes.
- Blink all the time.
- Steady-on all the time (MidAtl behavior)
- Blink all the time, steady-on upon braking.
What it won’t do, and credit goes to Julian Cates for being the one to figure out, is the desired SE behavior of "steady-on always, blink upon braking.
Think about it. When all you can see is a bunch of car’s rainlights in front of you…wouldn’t you want an indication of braking? But to get that, would you want to be following a dozen rapidly blinking red lights, really bright lights, right in your face lap after lap? Or you could be in front, I suppose.
So the SE rule strikes me as the optimum solution. Chase a steady-on light, that gives you an indication of braking by blinking.
In order to get the FIA rainlight to do the “steady-on always, blink upon braking behavior”, we’ve put together a kit. SE SpeccE30 sponsor Harrison Motorsports will be one of a couple retailers selling them for $20. So if you race in the SE always or occasionally, give them a call. It’s not on their eCommerce site yet. The kit quickly changes to MidAtl “steady-on always” behavior by disconnecting a spade connector, so it’s a 5sec task to change your rainlight from SE to MidAtl behavior.