Most of the Prepared classes have extremely tight specifications on exactly
what modifications a car can run. For my car, I am given minimum weight,
max wheel size, valve dimensions, max track, a choice between 2 specified
carbs, a crankshaft spec and only 1 allowed type of brake swap (drums for
Lancia Beta discs). How would this be achieved for the (roughly) several
hundred types of kit cars, with a wide variety of engine/chassis/suspension
combinations? Why is it fair to other competitors that a kit car would be
kept in line only with "a suitable formula to prevent the driver from
inflating HP and handling beyond what is reasonable for the street" as you
suggest? The Prepared rules developed from (more-or-less) looking at each
car individually and trying to fit equalize it to all other cars in the
class (I certainly wouldn't argue that this doesn't always succeed, but at
least an attempt was made).
In our region we allow a Cobra kit car to run in ASP - it's not legal there,
but for local competition it's the best fit. He knows that if he started to
win every event he would probably be protested and we would have to uphold
the protest, but he's been running for about 5 years and it hasn't been a
problem yet. Once you move out of local competition and into Nationals,
though it IS necessary to have very specific rules and to enforce them
because there are always people who will push the rules for all they can get.
Maureen Soar
Oregon Region SCCA Solo2 D Prepared Fiat X1/9
At 06:22 PM 7/25/00 -0400, Colbert, Raymond J. wrote:
>OK,
>
>I guess I should get involved at this point as I have been lobbying SCCA to
>get certain kit cars placed in Prepared Class with the Loti and Legends type
>cars. It is my opinion that if a car is not homologated but still is street
>legal (Legends cars might fit here with lights) it ought to be in prepared
>class. I am autcrossing a Porsche 550 Spyder kit that is street legal and
>can not be fitted with decent slicks so it runs on Hoosiers. Admitedly
>these kinds of cars do not fit in SP or stock but prepared yes and the times
>are comparable. All they need is a suitable formula to prevent the driver
>from inflating HP and handling beyond what is reasonable for the street.
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