----- Original Message -----
From: "Andy Hollis" <awhollis@swbell.net>
> And certainly that unlimited fuel injection will help, right? Sure. But
> add another $2500 to the shopping list. Oh yeah, and we can give them
> bigger wheels/tires! How's about 16x10? That should even the score.
> Ooops! Better get the checkbook out again. Those wheels/tires from last
> year are now junk. Looks like another $2500 per set of wheels. Oh yeah,
> and bigger tires cost more so you'll need to increase the ongoing tire
> budget.
>
> So, maybe a Miata *can* be competitive in AP, but at what cost? Will the
> folks who have already ponied up to build cars at the expected budget of a
> DP (or even the proposed EP) car want or be able to spend twice that much?
>
So instead, those of us already in the class have to spend far more than
that just to keep up! "At what cost?" At whatever cost it takes to be
competitive when building a new car. Someone building a new car takes that
on. But at what cost for existing cars to remain competitive? Our gripe is
we do not want to be rendered uncompetitive by the new dog on the block, and
that is what is happening. We've already spent the money to prepare the
cars, now we are having to just about spend it again.
Lessee, you just priced out $5000 for the Miata to upgrade to a point it
needs to be anyway. Meanwhile, to have a motor that gets within 2-3 seconds,
I have to shell out more than $6000. I already had a motor, but it was junk,
and even moreso to a relatively mild Miata motor. The price of running in DP
has gone up because of the Miata. You expect to pay a ton to build a new car
for a class. You don't really expect to pay it all over again to upgrade it
to match the overdog that gets tossed in with you.
Leaving the Miata in DP means screwing everyone else in the class for the
benefit of the newcomer. You cite cost? How about everyone else's cost? I've
spent into five figures just to get back up into the middle of the pack. I'm
trying to catch people like Cutrer and Scannell -- consistent trophy
winners -- and then an overdog car comes in and just about makes it
impossible. What do you think the cost is to the front-runners to keep up,
much less mid-packers?
You'd never know it by the class letters, but the cars in DP should be the
smallest and slowest cars in the Prepared category. DP cars do not have to
be British or old, they do have to be small and (compared to the other P
classes) slower. The Miata is neither. Adam Malley's 1200 Honda was a good
fit. It was damn quick when it won a DP title, then it went and won road
racing national championships in *H* Production. Now you are asking us to
accept an *E* Production champion into DP.
Miata should run with Z-cars and RX7s, not with Spridgets and Civics. IMHO,
FP is the logical place, but AP is what is on the table now because the
earlier proposal already has been shouted down by those who were afraid of
it coming into their class. Well, we've tried to suggest a decent,
competitive, right home for the Miata and we keep getting it shoved down our
throats. So I've about given up trying to do the right thing by it because
nobody else wants it either. Now I just want it out of my class and I don't
care where it goes.
(Frankly, I think AP is the most stupid ruleset in Prepared -- sorta E Mod
Lite -- but that's another issue, except I find it humorous that a couple
years ago it was "lets do this wonderful, different thing in Prepared" and
now it's "but the Miatas don't want to build that way.").
You want to see DP become what AP used to be? Watch it become Spec Miata the
way AP used to be Spec Lotus.
It also makes me mad that those who seem intent on keeping the car in DP are
not DP drivers themselves. I've seen at least one FP driver say "bring it
on" but nobody in DP who isn't in a Miata is lobbying to keep it here. It
needs a new home. DP ain't it.
--Rocky Entriken
--Rocky Entriken
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