----- Original Message -----
From: "Mark J. Andy" <marka@telerama.com>
To: "autox mailing list" <autox@autox.team.net>
Sent: Thursday, May 23, 2002 8:06 PM
Subject: Re: DOT Race Tires may become illegal
> Other than availability in currently popular street sizes, how would
> allowing slicks be VERY bad?
>
> Mark
>
Rules creep. Or, lets just have two categories, Prepared and Modified. We
don't need any street-tire classes any more, right?
Never mind that Stock and SP, not even counting in all the ST/SM recent
additions, outnumber P and M cars by 3-1 or 4-1 (which is just the natural
order of things, say I, a P driver).
No, what happens is you allow the Slicks on the Stock class cars, then they
say they need some suspension mods, for safety reasons. Then as long as
they've done that, lets remove the seats because the cars are now
unstreetable anyway. Hell, let's just remove all the interior. Replace the
headlights with facsimiles. Hey, how about fiberglass hoods, fenders, etc.
Let's allow more overbore, just for repair purposes of course. Oh, and
aftermarket aluminum pistons because they last longer. Any gears I can stuff
in the stock gearbox or diff case! Of course we can balance, lighten, yada
yada.
Fantasy? No, basically I am taking the roadracing Production class as it
existed about 1965 and roughly tracing its development line to the late
'90s. Yes, once upon a time, owners of Production cars actually drove them
to the track, taped over the headlights, and went racing. "Race tires" then
had grooves and sipes deeper than those holographic treads you get on the
DOT race tires of today. Today's Production car (ditto Prepared) is strictly
a fully set up trailer queen.
Or, let's look at this from the other end of the perspective. If we are to
have "Stock" or "Street" (SP or ST or SM) classes, shouldn't they exist with
some concept of the cars being streetable to some degree? And isn't a
street-legal tire pretty basic to that?
Also look at one important difference between solo and road racing. In Solo
you can try the sport, decide you like it, then shop for a car. In road
racing you basically have to commit and buy the car before you try it (yes,
you can rent, but it is still a much greater commitment). Put Solo on that
same basis and you lose one of its strongest attributes for attracting new
members/participants.
We NEED categories with street-legal tires in Solo. They are the bedrock of
our sport.
--Rocky Entriken
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