I find it interesting that the rationale for putting the Miata into AP is
it's similarity to a Lotus, when for the most part the Lotus's have been
driven out of AP by the GT cars. Not that there were a lot of them in
recent years anyway. Many of you know I was heavily into AP in my Lotus in
the late 80's through the 90's, with some success. My decision to retire
the car and play with another was based on the math.
A 5-liter V8 can make about 600 bhp with max effort. Some CP cars are
currently running at or near that power level. If you only weigh 2000 lbs
that's about 3 lbs per horsepower. My Lotus had a 150 bhp engine. At
(approx) 1500 lbs that's 10 lbs per horsepower. With a more radical engine
and fuel injection I could make more power, but I'd still be at maybe 9 lbs
per horsepower -- one third the power to weight of a max GT car.
I'm not a great believe in power is everything. But it is at least
something.
Note that over the years, weight was continuously piled on to the Lotus's to
level the playing field with the now-FP cars. But when the FP cars were
stripped away from the class, the penalty weight remained on the Lotus's.
Give me 1200 lbs and 10" (GT-II) rims, and maybe I'd consider it. Only I'm
not sure that being a back-marker in CP isn't more fun than winning AP was.
-- Bill Martin
74 CP
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