VERY well said, DG. You may have some smidgen
of redeeming social value yet.
R2
----- Original Message -----
From: <dg50@daimlerchrysler.com>
To: <autox@autox.team.net>
Sent: Friday, October 27, 2000 11:24 AM
Subject: Re: STS Tire Rules
> Loren Williams <Loren@kscable.com> wrote:
>
> > Roger Johnson wrote:
> >>
> >> As Dennis Grant might clearly tell you Loren, I have NO
> >> negativism about any class - unless the participation numbers
> >> show it to be unworthy of inclusion as a National class.
>
> > (Note to self: Always consult with Dennis first.)
>
> Man, there's a lot of people taking my name in vain today.
>
> Yes, if the world lived by the simple rule "What Would Dennis Do?" the
> world would be a much better place. :)
>
> Anyway, Roger's "negativism" serves a useful purpose. Coming up with
> solutions to the problems Roger notices usually serves to make a class
> stronger. Polyanna he may be, but ignore him at your peril. ;)
>
> I do do wish he'd give us a little more credit though... HEY ROGER! WE
BEAT
> YOUR PARTICIPATION TARGET IN OUR FIRST YEAR AT NATIONALS!!
>
> *ahem* Damn that felt good. :)
>
> >> Some of my best friends run SM. I have run it myself. I would
> >> NOT, however, welcome an SM driver as a son-in-law.
>
> Lucky for you Roger that I'm already married.... :) :)
>
> > How (or why) did SM enter this discussion about STS tires?
>
> He's an old guy. His attention wanders. Cut him some slack.
>
> >> This entire discussion began with a hue & cry to have STS as
> >> a full National class. I do have strong reservations about this
> >> ONLY from the standpoint of the inherent, unworkable, unenforceable
> >> "140" treadwear rule.
>
> > You've made that clear. And I think everyone understands where you're
> > coming from. I even accept that you may be correct in that there's
> nothing
> > we can do to make it better. I don't, however, feel that we're more "at
> > risk" of falling victim to an unscrupulous tire manufacturer than any
> other
> > class. (not saying it can't or won't happen)
>
> Actually, you're at tremendous risk. STS and SM are, for the time being,
> the SCCA Marketing Department golden children. We get the lion's share of
> what little coverage we get. And given how restrictive STS is with most of
> its rules, and given that tires mean more to performance than any other
> modification, STS is ripe, and I mean RIPE, for exactly this kind of tire
> company manipulation.
>
> This isn't an imaginary monacled villain we're talking about here, this
> stuff has ACTUALLY HAPPENED in the past.
>
> > Now, rather than just telling us that our rules won't work... perhaps
> with
> > all of your experience in the Protest Shed you could offer some
> suggestions
> > on how we could try to make it work. It should be obvious to you that
> > we're going to try to make it work anyway. If 140 treadwear and an
> > exclusion list won't work, what will?
>
> As I see it, you've got two choices:
>
> 1) Eliminate STS, and keep STR
> 2) Run a spec tire for National events
>
> From a simplicity standpoint, option 1 is probably the easiest and least
> painful. However, I also think it's the most likely to fail in the long
> run. Why? Because Street Touring missed the mark as far as attracting the
> Import guys went. It was a great idea, the people who designed the class
> were 100% hearts in the right place, but the rules for the class were
> written by people outside the demographic they were shooting for and they
> didn't/don't understand the mindset of their target audience. Import guys
> don't "get" STS, trust me. A large chunk of why SM exists at all is that
> it's a better (but still not perfect) match for the Import Drag
> demographic.
>
> STS is succeeding right now because (for better or for worse) there is a
> group of people who want to compete on street tires at National events.
> THAT is your core constituancy right now, not the Import guys. So if you
> eliminate STS and keep STR, then you remove the one feature that's keeping
> you alive.
>
> So you'll probably wind up with a spec tire. That's an opportunity,
because
> now you can open up bidding from a manufacturer and actually make some
> money for the class. You also eliminate the non-stop chase for the
> "ultimate street tire" that you have now, and actually may reduce costs
for
> everyone in the long term. The downside is that, initially, you force
> everyone to buy a set of spec tires.
>
> I don't see that you have much else in the way of choices. But "status
quo"
> is gonna cause a LOT more pain in the log run.
>
> DG
>
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