Howdy,
On Mon, 31 Dec 2001, ELIZABETH A LYLE wrote:
> It's not mystifying, ask the Prep/Mod guys who used to run Pros! These cars
> are built to transition at speed as quickly as possible; generate sustained
> lateral g's; accelerate as fast as possible; brake as late as possible and
> hopefully, the combination of car and driver is better than the next guy. So
> far it's OK.
Just for the record, I'm a Prepared guy that runs Pros.
> But IMO, today's Pros give you a 25 second course that simply reduces any
> advantage that your modifications may have created. Speeds do not appear to
> be high enough for any aero package to be fully effective; there is a physical
> limit to how fast you can accelerate on a very short straight (if there is
> one); and turn radii are so short that your sustainable g's are not in effect
> very long. Besides all that, an autocross in a box is just not much fun in a
> car capable of, and built for, much higher speeds.
To be fairly brutal, that mostly sounds like whining. I could say the
same things about "standard" autox courses.
> Have not run a Pro for several years and thus am not up on all the rules, but
> it seems that a Mod car runs first against some theoretical index (and how
> good can this be with so few participants?), then is indexed again somehow. I
> tried to figure this out from results somewhere and it appeared that on a
> 25-second course, a B Mod car would have to run a 19! I suppose this is
> theoretically possible, but if it is, why don't you see more cars? I submit
> that it is not even feasible to beat indexing like that; the short courses are
> no fun to drive; it beats up the car and driver to no good effect; and never
> mind the overheating between back to back runs problems. True you might be
> competitive with another B Mod car, but since nobody else goes there, why
> would I?
Well, indexes are out now (except for Ladies classes), so if you get five
cars in your class you're good. If you don't, you get bumped to the next
higher class which sucks, but you've got nobody to blame except your lame
classmates that didn't show up to run.
I enjoy Pro's because of the format and the chance to start on a drag
tree. To me, all the other "I can't be competitive because of <blah,
whine>" stuff is just extra. Its not like I make a living at this stuff.
> Just my 2-cents from a Mod car perspective. For those of you who enjoy the
> Pros - have at it!
Ditto. I do like to try and get the word out about Pros to the Prepared
folks though. I think a lot of them don't know how it works today and are
staying away because of some perceived "unfairness" that was fixed long
ago.
Mark
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