On Wed, 06 Sep 2000 20:48:28 EDT "Larry Steckel"
<lorenzoscribe@hotmail.com> writes:
> Ben,
>
> I see two reasons why you are noticing the trend to big torque/HP
> cars.
> First, the C-4 Corvettes can now be had at or below $10K for a
> really
> competent car.
Hey, why do you think I'm driving one now? Just watch out, to build my
"cheap" C4 into a competent BSP machine that $10k price tag is far
surpassed.
The Datsun Z's, the RX-7's and the Nissan 300's are
> also
> coming down in price. What was a near exotic ten years ago, is now
> about the
> same price as an econobox. Which would you rather race?
My point exactly. Which car would most of us rather race? An econobox or
something with some horsepressure?
>
> Second. Go try and put down a "TECHNICAL" course sometime and
> prepare to
> leave town before the competitors find the tar and feathers.
Mostly because the "TECHNICAL" courses are NOT FUN to drive.
>
> The big, fast, "God I was deep into third gear" courses have become
> so
> accepted as the norm that our car selection has moved to the big
> cars that
> can use all that horespower even in the slaloms. The larger Solo II
> courses
> are now probably faster than the Solo I courses were ten years ago.
> Is this
> still really an autocross?
I think you overstated the comparison to Solo I by a large margin.
However, a HUGE reason the sport is exploding is because the courses are
now FUN to drive instead of a kinky exercise. We have a CP driver
designing our courses, here in Atlanta, and EVERYONE is having lots of
fun on his courses. Yeah, the econobox drivers can't snicker at beating
high horsepower cars, anymore but even they are having big grins on their
faces when they leave the course. Oh, and our average turnout is knocking
on the door of 200 entries per event.
>
> Larry Steckel
>
> >From: Ben Thatcher <bthatch@juno.com>
> >Reply-To: Ben Thatcher <bthatch@juno.com>
> >To: solo2atlanta@topica.com, autox@autox.team.net,
> bspvette@topica.com
> >Subject: The HP nationals trend
> >Date: Tue, 5 Sep 2000 23:09:39 -0400
> >
> >It seems that autocrossers are increasingly falling in love with
> big
> >torque and big cars. Take a look at the entries for Nationals in
> 2000.
> >
> >As of 9/4/2000 there are 1108 entries. Of those 374 are in classes
> >dominated by V8s or big HP cars. That's 33.75% of all the entries.
> >
> >In the Stock classes the biggest class is BS/BSL (Miata spec class)
> with
> >70 drivers. However, SS/SSL (Corvettes and RX7s) are in 2nd with 69
> and
> >FS/FSL (Pony cars) in 3rd with 65. The SS and FS crowd makes up
> nearly
> >29% of all stock drivers.
> >
> >Go to Street Prepared and we find even more of a shift to big cars.
> >BSP/BSPL (Corvettes, Datsun 2xxZs, and Nissan 300 turbos) has risen
> from
> >the dead with 51 drivers and ESP/ESPL (Pony cars with a strong
> stirring
> >in of the BMW M3s)has 47. This makes a total of 41% of open class
> Street
> >Prepared and 46% of ladies class Street Prepared are driving the
> big
> >cars.
> >
> >Prepared is totally dominated by CP/CPL (Pony cars) with 77
> drivers. Add
> >in BP/BPL (19 drivers mostly in Corvettes or Turbo Nissans and
> Turbo
> >Rotaries) then the big motored cars make up an astounding 55% of
> open
> >Prepared drivers and 45% of the lady Prepared drivers.
> >
> >Modified is a bit fuzzy as EM is the only class that is really
> close to
> >the concept of a big motor in a big car. With a 1500 lb. minimum
> weight
> >these cars aren't exactly large. However, 46 mod cars are in EM
> which
> >makes up 24% of open class drivers and 19% of Ladies class drivers.
> >
> >What this shows to me is that even though many in SCCA think of our
> sport
> >is ideal for the tiny car nimbly dancing through the cones while,
> in
> >fact, a large number of us prefer the brute force a high
> horsepowered car
> >lets us play with. There's no substitute for massive torque!
> >
> >
> >Ben Thatcher
> >Apex Benefit Services & Motorsports
> >Stockbridge, GA
>
>
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Ben Thatcher
Apex Benefit Services & Motorsports
Stockbridge, GA
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