Just playing a bit of a devil's advocate here, but if
you are comparing the production road racing classes
to Solo II racing, I think it is a flawed argument.
There is no "speed limit" in road racing. I've never
seen any rules or definitions that describe road
racing as (per my old 1999 solo rulebook) "a
non-speed driving skill contest where the hazards to
spectators, participants, and property do not exceed
those encountered in normal, legal highway driving."
Your argument that says we will fall down the slippery
slope of allowing more modifications in the name of
safety should not exist if we remember that what we do
is in fact NOT racing...For all intents and purposes
there is a speed limit to what we do.
If the courses are designed properly, and the speeds
remain at a reasonably low level as they are supposed
to according to the definition of a solo II event,
then the slippery slope you are afraid we will fall
down does not exist.
Buddy.
--- Rocky Entriken <rocky@tri.net> wrote:
>
> Rules creep.
> <SNIP>
> ... 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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