Andy,
I don't think SP looks like it is in trouble right now. And I'm not
suggesting that SP be merged into Prepared, right now. I DO think that in
the future that the category will begin to decline because of the
overriding issues with smog control and total preparation making real
competitive cars practically unstreetable. This combined with the ST
alternative could spell a further decline. I think there will be
increasing pressure to make the ST ruleset cover most production
vehicles. When that happens people who like 2-seaters might be encouraged
to go ST rather than SP. Also, the freedom associated with SM/SM2 is
attractive to a lot of SP drivers.
Of course the SEB could short circuit that process by refusing to broaden
the ST category to try to keep SP healthy. But if enough local regions
broaden ST out on the local level and find success doing so, the pressure
WILL build to make the changes.
I also realize that large areas of the country don't even do smog tests,
so people in those areas can do whatever they want to their cars and
still drive them on the street. If that situation ever tightens up, there
will be increased pressure to get the street back in SP.
Now, having said all this, I currently own and compete in a C4 Corvette
that is built to SP specs with the smog control stuff removed (but it
doesn't look like I have). I've still been able to pass Georgia's smog
tests (using a rear wheel dyno and sniff test). But, to me it is still
important to be able to drive my car on the street and I do so on a
regular basis. I have even elected to keep my A/C since our area gets
very toasty in the summer.
I'm also on record for wishing that SM/SM2 still had provision for smog
legal cars to guarantee that cars built to these class specs be able to
be street driven. Obviously, I've been outvoted on this one.
On Mon, 14 Jul 2003 21:08:08 -0500 "Andy Hollis" <awhollis@swbell.net>
writes:
> I'm having a hard time understanding how a misnomer means that a
> category
> should be integrated into another one. If your issue is with the
> name
> "Street Prepared", then why not just propose changing the name?
>
> --Andy
>
>
Ben Thatcher
http://ApexBenefits.biz
/// unsubscribe/change address requests to majordomo@autox.team.net or try
/// http://www.team.net/mailman/listinfo
/// Partial archives at http://www.team.net/archive
|