Re: DM & E mod weights

["Jan Schmidt" <jschmidt@kumc.edu>]

In response to Craig Straub:

The 2 liter TR7,1.7,1.8,2.0 liter 914s  and all Miatas would be in D mod, not E 
mod if normal aspiration was maintained.

E mod is less of a "Lotus Mod" than D mod is, but look at last years results: 3 
of the top 4 finishers were Loti???

When a region creates a class like "Open SP" or "Open Mod" it just creates a 
pipe-dream  because the classes are non-existent at the end of the season when 
Nationals are held.

Twenty years ago , when D & E mod were invented, sports cars were manufactured  
to be very light at the expense of driver safety. Nowadays, sports cars weigh 
quite a bit more to accomodate safety bumpers, side door beams, anti-lock 
brakes, air bags, steel bodies, unibody crumple zones...the list is endless. It 
is time to modernize D & E mod rules. If the rules are modernized it will not 
make Loti obsolete, but it will make them run on even playing ground.

I personally recomended to SCCA about 5 years ago to create a 3rd production 
mod class:1500 lbs for under 2 liter, 2000 lbs for 2 liter to 3 liter and 2500 
lbs for over 3 liter. Obviously , my request was denied, presumably due to the 
fact that  you would be taking 2 sparsly populated classes and spreading them 
even thinner into 3 classes. But one still ought to consider the possibility of 
increased  participation  if the rules are relaxed a little ie Higher minimum 
weights.

If the rules are changed to higher minimum weights then winning will be 
less$$$$$ dependent. Making a steel bodied production car extremely light costs 
big bucks!

Bill Schmidt  KC region CS Rx7