Howdy,
On Tue, 1 Oct 2002, Andy Hollis wrote:
> The Prepared category as a whole has participation issues right now.
> In fact, one of the topics SEB Chair Colan Arnold brought up at the
> Town Hall meeting was "How can we get more participation in
> Prepared?". Participation can only be addressed by attracting new
> competitors while retaining as many existing competitors as possible.
> Note that I didn't say "retain all existing", because any changes
> meant to attract new folks will likely hurt some existing players.
> And there's always some natural attrition due to unrelated
> circumstances anyway (e.g. marriage :-)
>
> The Miata is one of the few examples in the category where competitors
> are building new cars to compete in. The other obvious ones are the
> various Hondas and other small sedans that compete in EP. Why is
> this? I would postulate that Prepared embraces a modification style
> that reflects what folks did to hop up their cars back in the 50's and
> 60's. In fact, Prepared specifically disallows and/or penalizes most
> new technology. OTOH, what today's generation wants to do for mods is
> embraced more by Street Modified. And the cars they want to do it with
> are late model cars. Most of the cars in a competitive position
> within Prepared are old cars with old technology, neither of which
> match with the participant demographic. This is why, IMHO, you don't
> see so many new Prepared cars being built.
You forgot another obvious one. CP. Please, SEB folks, whatever you do
with the _other_ prepared classes, don't screw around with CP. We like
it. Leave it the hell alone. :-)
Secondly, SM appeals to the bolt on guys (very broadly speaking) while
Prepared appeals to the fabricators (or probably more accurately, wannabe
fabricators like me). There are more bolt on guys than fabricators, no
question. We see it in solo and it seems that way in roadracing. Its not
a "young crowd" vs. "old crowd" thing in terms of what you have to do to
build a car.
That said, I think it _is_ a "young crowd" vs. "old crowd" when you're
talking about which car you start with. I know absolutely nothing about
old british cars and don't really have a desire to learn. Lever shocks
and points don't interest me.
So then lets talk about carbs. Carbs, IMHO, are also a "young crowd" vs.
"old crowd" thing. (I'm like a "middle crowd" on this one btw. :-)
I think eventually FI needs to get into prepared without the killer
penalty it currently has. I also think this needs to be done _very_
slowly to give people time to plan & adapt.
My suggestion would be to drop the current 10% penalty for modified
aftermarket FI to 5%. Nobody I know thinks a 10% penalty is worth it (at
least in CP). At 5%, now we're starting to be able to see some tradeoffs.
> So, what to do to fix it? I don't have the whole answer since it will
> require a bunch of study. But certainly you want to embrace and nurture
> those areas where new participation exists. EP as a class is one that is
> working well, and the Miata as a car is another. To me, leaving DP as an
> "old British Car Class" is just asking for it to fade away into the sunset.
> The cars are getting older, the parts harder to find, the cars do not appeal
> to younger generations, and the technology is uninspiring (IMO). When
> asking for a class unto their own (i.e. remove the Miata), the British
> drivers best remember that expression, "Be careful what you ask for you,
> just might get it!".
I don't see a reason the class of old british cars can't work (after all,
the fact that _I_ don't know anything about the cars doesn't mean much),
but you gotta be able to show participation.
Like you, it seems like the miata is one of the cool "new" prepared cars.
I'd certainly like them to have a place to play where they're competitive.
I have a hard time seeing how that place is AP with cars like the Tiger.
Mark
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