"Rocky Entriken" <rocky@tri.net>
> The stupid thing about SP is that the SEB let the category get away from
> them.
I don't know is this is the right analysis Rocky - although the rest of
what you have to say is pretty well right on the money.
The issue as I see it is that there's another issue buried in here, and it
centres on the definition of "Street"
There is one camp that feels that anything that runs on DOT tires and is
based off a production car starting point is a "street" car - as opposed to
a "race" car that runs on slicks and started life as a pile of steel
tubing.
Then there's the other camp, that wants "street" to mean "street legal", as
in "I can drive it off the course and go straight home"
The two camps have opposing goals.
The first is more concerned about performance. What matters to this camp is
getting the car to go as fast as it can within the rules that define the
class.
The second class is more concerned about economics. They don't want to have
to deal with changing tires (that wear out quickly) buying trailers and the
trucks that support them, and so on and so forth. They expect that the
majority of cars will be driven to the event under their own power. There
is also occasionally some handwaving about "the kids on the street" being
able to compete without changing their car.
There is also a sub-group within the second class, the guys I call the "I
want to do all the mods I'm prepared to do, but want to ban anything I'm
not prepared to do" gang - but thankfully, they are in the minority.
Now the interesting thing is that the guys in the "performance uber alles"
camp are actually just as concerned about keeping costs down as the second
camp, but just to a different degree. It is in fact a good deal cheaper to
build a Street Prepared (or Street Mod) car than it is a real Prepared or
Mod car, mostly because you're working with a production car chassis that
isn't allowed to be modified much. It takes less in the way of facilities
to build an SP car, and you can "creep up" to the full preparation levels,
if you want. Yes, the sum total can get pretty expensive, but you can
spread that cost out over time. (and the nature of development in fact
forces you to, to a large extent)
Daddio, I note, drove his DSP car to Nationals this year, and did just
fine. ;)
The core problem is that there is no good way to reconcile these two camps,
and the root of this is that there is no universal definition of "street
legal" or even of "street car". Basing rules off laws is a REALLY bad idea,
because those laws are not the same state to state or country to country,
and they CHANGE, often mid season. And if you pick some arbitrary level of
modification as representing a "street car", you will find people who will
think that you've either gone too far (the "SP cars are too stiff for the
street!" people) or not far enough (pretty well every single turbocharged
SP car owner)
This is not at all unique to autocross, by the way. The local speed shop
holds a "fastest street car in Windsor" race every year, and you should
hear those guys argue over what is appropriate for a "street car". This
year, there was a HUGE row over port induction nitrous systems - plate
systems were deemed OK, but if you drilled and tapped the 8 holes for the
nitrous injectors, to some people you had crossed over the line....
Anyway, I don't think Street Prepared is broken. I think it has a rule or
two that could bear re-evaluation, but on the whole, I think it is Just
Right. We now have a nice, smooth progression from Stock->Street
Prepared->Street Modified, based off a common rules set, that allows for
varying levels of modified, street-driven cars, and a clear sense of how
one gets from one to the other. That's as near Utopia as you'll ever see.
One might be able to make the case for an "SP Lite" - something that allows
more mods than stock, but less than SP - but I don't think so. I don't
think there's enough competitors to go around to populate it. STS's success
is based on one thing, and one thing only - non-R-compound tires, and as
such it is dangling by the thinnest of threads. Once a tire manufacturer
decides to make a 130 treadwear-stamped R compound, that game is over, and
STR (the alternative) has fallen on its face.
DG
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