hatchback fuel cell enclosure

i must be protected from my fuel cell by a firewall of .024 steel or .032 aluminum per nhra rules and per general common sense. the car will be at $2015 challenge.

i have hatchback, so no real way to do that. so i built a sealed .024 steel box around the fuel cell with a lid that i can add latches to and planned to add some sort of gasket to seal it up... the sump hangs below the floor and is protected by a .024 steel shield on the front, both sides, and bottom. cell has rollover valve with vent tube exiting underneath car.

this should be good for tech, right?

All that matters is that the fuel system is sealed from the passenger compartment.

The funny part is all the cars that did NOT come this way from the factory. My RX-7 is one of them... can grab rubber filler hose from inside the car. Same for Miatas.

And then there's all the cars that (rather sensibly IMO) route all hardlines through the passenger compartment instead of underneath where they rot out and leak after six years. I'm looking at you, Subaru, who has routed all hardlines through the interior since at least the 80s...

that was the best part of the WRX, all the hard lines were nice and clean. the worst part was the PO was such a hack that he had a junk fuel cell in the trunk along with pump, and straight rubber hose running under back seat then along sill and out the clutch master cylinder hole, zip tied to clutch pedal.

my enclosure is certainly sealed from the passenger compartment, even used seam sealer on it. biggest plus i see is keeping fumes out of car if i spill on the top while filling.

my 68 c20 still has the tank behind the seat.

I can't begin to tell you how many arguments I've had with people that think running hard lines thru the cockpit of the car is somehow unsafe. Same idiots will run a plastic oil pressure hose to a gauge, but think fuel in a steel line, properly secured, with no fittings inside the cockpit, will somehow spontaneously combust in an accident.