"Mike Smith" <msmith2@columbus.rr.com> wrote:
> It's funny you should mention SM costs....
> SM, being born out of STS, and STR, was seen as the ultimate class for
cheap
> street cars.
Actually, no, it wasn't. There's no way you could have a hand in the making
of those rules, and NOT see that the potential for expense that was built
into the class.
SM was/is seen as the class for ultimate street cars.
However, we weren't stupid or ignorent either. Nobody in SM was really keen
on creating a super-mega-dollar class either. Sure, "ultimate" translates
into a certain amount of expense, but "ultimate" does not equal "unlimited"
either.
There's two very subtle undercurrents to the SM rules:
The first is that Joe Hotrodder invariably mucks with the engine first.
Most of the collisions between the SP rules and Joe were based around
engine issues - swaps, boost controllers, cams, heads, and so on. There
were very few people upset over chassis mods, the one major exception being
subframe connectors.
But SM requires DOT tires. Even a DOT R compound can only put so much power
to the ground, so once your motor has exceeded that power level, any money
you spend on the motor is essentially wasted. In SM, the tires act as an
engine power/money fuze.
The second is that when you look at Real Racecar classes - Prepared and
Modified - by FAR the single greatest expense (in time, money, and required
resources) is CHASSIS development. You can take a state-of-the-art Prepared
or Modified chassis, slap a tired (but adaquate) motor in it, and go win.
You cannot stick a super motor into a tired, improperly-built, or obsolete
chassis and go win.
Furthermore, while any monkey can make horsepower, the skills with chassis
development take a lot of experience to acquire. I think it's safe to say
that the single greatest expense in building a CP car is the un-doing and
re-doing of all the stuff you got wrong the first few times. (At least,
that's what all the Prepared guys keep telling me :)
So SM allows NOTHING in the way of chassis development not already allowed
in SP (aside from subframe connectors - and if you remember, I initially
fought like hell to try and limit them to bolt-in, instead of weld-in)
So far, this has worked out really well. You can throw all the money you
want at the engine, but the rest of the car is mostly limited to what was
already legal in SP.
I've been busy trying to build a full-boogie SM car, partially because I
want to win, but also because I figure I have a responsibility to
experience first-hand what works and what does not. I work in a very strict
"where's the next biggest bang for the buck" preparation sequence, and so
far, the majority of the stuff that has been done to my car is SP-legal.
The only things on the car that are not, in fact, are my turbo, my boost
controller, and a pair of camber bolts.
SO FAR, it has actually been *cheaper* to build an SM car than it has been
to build an SP car, because I don't have to jump through all the hoops SP
requires on the engine side. Rather than having to carefully choose an
update/backdate motor, and thouroughly blueprint it to the SP rules'
limits, I just swapped on a new turbo, added a $30 boost controller, and
called it a day. I have other plans in the works, but all my calculations
indicate that I'll be able to build as much HP as is practically useable
for close to what it would cost to build a full-on SP motor - AND it'll be
a lot more reliable too. It's just not worth it to build a grenade, when
there's no way to hook that power up, and when the rules give me the
latitude to make a reliable engine that makes all the power I could
possibly use.
> From the details of the article, this thing would be legal in SM. I don't
> know how much good 600 turbo HP will do on DOT tires, but he obviously
did
> not care before writing the checks.....
That's exactly the point - you have the freedom to spend as much money as
you want, but if the rules work the way the so-far seem to be working, the
actual money you NEED to spend is far less.
It's subtle, but SO FAR it is working just fine.
DG
|