> But part of the problem is that in the world of
> autocrossing, a very small performance advantage
> (aka Weenie Mods), can equate to a very small
> performance difference and autocrosses can be won
> and lost by such small margins.
This argument is occasionally used to justify weenieness, bit I think it is
vastly overrated.
If we were racing robots, that drove 100% at the limits of the vehicle 100% of
the time on the absolute best line, then you'd be right: _any_ difference in the
sum total of power, weight, and cornering ability for a given vehicle would be
signifigant.
However, we're not these perfect robots. Our vehicles have a theoretical "best
time" in them determined by the capabilities of the vehicle, and then we go out
and approximate that best time as best we can.
The amount of time won or lost in the effectiveness of that approximation is
many orders of magnitude larger than the differences in the theoretical "best
time" between vehicles, assuming that the vehicles are correctly classed, and
sometimes, not even then. There have been races where F Stock beat ESP, for
example.
Furthermore, unlike road racing or oval racing, the effects of multiple laps are
not cumulative. And in the 3-run amateur Solo world, the sample space is so
small that excellence in execution is very much greater than raw vehicle
potential in the general case.
> I guess I am saying that the size of the weenie does
> matter.
I would agree with this statement. There are things that are obviously weenie -
plastic shock covers, for example. There are things that are obviously
non-weenie - like the NOS bottle hidden under the seat. There's a huge block of
grey area somewhere in between.
However, in autocross, the "weenie line" is farther towards the non-weenie end
of the spectrum (meaning more weenieness) than in something like road racing,
due to the extremely short nature of the runs and their non-cumultive nature.
The longer the run, the farther the weenie line moves towards the "weenie" end,
as the small difference in performance is multiplied by the longer run time.
As well, we don't run minimum weights (in Stock/SP at least) and quite often the
difference in weight of a weenie mod is vastly overshadowed by the difference in
driver weights (assuming a mod made purely for weight reduction). Consider a
75lb Neon driver protesting a 250lb Neon driver over the illegal removal of a
1lb interior trim piece, as the 1lb less weight means the "lightweight" Neon was
theoretically .001 second faster....
The hard part is, of course, drawing the exact point where the "weenie line"
lies for a given car/driver/class combo. I don't have a general-case answer, I
can only observe and opine.
> I do believe that removal of an obstructing mirror can. [make a .001 second
difference]
This to me is another kettle of fish entirely. While I agree that blocking a
driver's sight will slow him down, this is one of those cases where I think
safety is more important than anything else. In autocross, we have exactly ONE
means of communicating with a driver - with flags. That is a visual means of
communicating, and if an object like a mirror is obstructive enough to slow a
car down, then it's obstructive enough to block the view of a flag. The driver's
view forward should be as unobstructed as possible as a point of safety.
To me, that means anyone who would protest a removed mirror on performance
grounds is really saying they'd rather see a competitor not-see a flag or
incident and get involved in an accident rather than lose. If that's not weenie,
I don't know what is. Perhaps a letter needs to be written here.
DG
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