>From Paul:
>>Not everybody is SBW who can afford a competitive SCCA World Challenge
car, a competitive SCCA T1 car, a competitive SCCA ASP car, and a
competitive SCCA BSP car - all set up to the appropriate rules. But a
lot of us want to do essentially the same thing - to be able to race and
autocross competitively.
A thought along these lines...
In order to be competitive in any type of racing, you need to have a car
that is prepped to the extent of the rules. This means spending money,
although the total amount depends on the type of racing and class.
If you want to run in all these series, and feel the need to have the most
competitive equipment available, then you better start building cars.
IMO, trying to adapt one set of rules across several series will ruin all
the series by affecting the people who are only interested in running one
series. Even though each series has rules that are "screwed up" for the
most part their rules are pretty much on target for their sport. Does
Nascar use different cars for Busch and Winston Cup?
If solo allowed suspension changes in stock, then how do you police it? Who
decides what is a "reliability" problem? The rule book could easily exceed
1000 pages with an exemption for every car.
I'm sorry that your car is built to PCA rules, but in excess of SCCA stock
rules, putting you in a class that you may not be competitive in. However,
this shouldn't affect the amount of fun you have at an autocross, and if you
want to be competitive nationally, you better build or buy a different car.
What PCA class does my CP mustang run in? Why isn't there parity, I want to
run PCA events and be competitive. IMO, this is what you are saying about
Solo II.
DISCLAIMER: Not meant as insulting in any way to anybody, just putting my
thoughts on the table!
Dave
----- Original Message -----
From: "Paul Foster" <pfoster@gdi.net>
To: "team.net" <autox@autox.team.net>
Sent: Thursday, October 12, 2000 9:46 AM
Subject: The Cage Issue, or How Many Cars Do I Need to Have?!?
> The point a lot of people seem to be missing is that autocrossing is
> supposed to be grassroots oriented. That means that if I have a track
> car I should be able to run it in Solo II without being cast into EM. In
> my case it is a 944 Turbo that is set up for PCA club racing in the
> STOCK class. Now, stock to PCA club racing means any suspension mod as
> long as the suspension type remains the same and the suspension
> attachment points remain in the same place. Besides the welded cage, the
> other thing that causes me immediate grief is that the OEM 944 Turbo
> control arm ball joints have a tendency to break if you lower the car.
> The PCA in it's infinite wisdom allows a special compensation for this
> well known problem. I know how this runs contrary to the philosophy of
> SCCA Solo II to just screw anybody whose car has a particular weakness
> that has been remedied with aftermarket parts, but I'd just as soon have
> my wheels stay attached to the car when I am on the track.
>
> Not everybody is SBW who can afford a competitive SCCA World Challenge
> car, a competitive SCCA T1 car, a competitive SCCA ASP car, and a
> competitive SCCA BSP car - all set up to the appropriate rules. But a
> lot of us want to do essentially the same thing - to be able to race and
> autocross competitively.
>
> I call on all of you to at least think about minimizing the chasms that
> develop with different prep rules when drawing up these rules. I for one
> do not like pretending that my car is an SP car (where it belongs) when
> it isn't according to the strict letter of the law. But the hell if I am
> going to bolt in my cage when it is simply not as strong as when it is
> welded in just to appease some goofy rule.
>
> Paul Foster
>
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