Bill Schmidt (I think) said, without any line breaks:
> I still maintain my original opinion on minimum weights. Consider the
>following: You mentioned your excitement about "increased participation."
>Raise the minimum weights up to what I mentioned and you will see massive
>"increased participation."
Me:
"If you build it, they will come" has long been an argument posed by those who
would like a class "made over" to provide more competitiveness for their
preferred
form of car. Remember Sport Truck? Seen hundreds of Street Touring cars
coming
out lately? Anybody being overrun by Vees or F5's in FM? The rulemakers are
rightfully typically a bit skeptical about such claims. One might argue that
the big-car folks have just as much right to demand a spot for engine-swap
Mustangs and Camaros, which currently are completely unaccommodated in Mod, as
you do for an Rx-7.
> Not everyone wants to race a Lotus
Not everyone wants to race a Neon either. Or a Honda. Or a Mazda. That's
why there are a bunch of classes with a variety of contending cars. A 1st-
gen Rx-7 is probably best suited for CSP.
> $15000 to $20000 and modify from that point???$$$ Thats an awful lot of money
Competitiveness in many Stock classes will cost that much or more. Price
an M3 or 968 lately? Rx7TT? Celica? How about the ASP winner, which I
believe was bought for over $20K? Try building a 911 for ASP; the cost of
parts is astounding. Not that I disagree that it's a lot of money, but
this characteristic is hardly unique to Mod. The cheapest category out
there appears to be the small-car end of SP; CSP Rx-3's and DSP X-1/9's
aren't exactly high-dollar acquisitions. Not terribly cheap to build
if you do it right, but not in BMW or Porsche territory, either.
>for an amateur sport with no purses to speak of. If the rules dont change,
>then D & E mod will continue to be "Lotus Mod!"
Last time I looked, EM was "Fiero-funny-car Mod". Or "Rotary Spridget Mod".
Yes, I'm aware of the Spencer car and (historically) the Milligan car. But
others have certainly contended and won.
> The Solo 2 Rules should be changed. A good weight minimum for D-Mod would
> be 1500 lbs. and E Mod should be 1,800 or 1,900 lbs. D & E mod ought to be
I might go for 1200 and 1700. I know an EM Rx-7 which isn't much over 1700,
I seem to recall the Tamandli EM Fiero coming in around 1610, and various
little Britcar platforms (e.g. Midget) could get down near a DM minimum
of 1200 without reconstructing the car from titanium. The 1000-lb level is
pretty much attainable only by the Seven-type platforms. And many of
them are at more like 1100.
> able to be built using any 2 seat sports car. If the Lotuses are to light,
> let them use balllast weights. You would play hell ever getting an RX7 to
> 1500 lbs for E mod let alone a 1,000 for D mod.
Why would you run it in DM? The basic platform is suited for EM, to some
extent. An Rx-7 actually trophied Nationally in EM a couple of years ago.
It's not realistic to expect multiple classes to bend to fit your own car
preference. CP doesn't look like a good Rx-7 place, either.
George Ryan:
>AMEN!!! Don't forget AP in that scenario, too. The Lotii in Prepared
>are killers at 1400lbs, when my 4 cylinder Fiero must weigh 1900.
That's 1470 lbs.
> Their up to 180hp in that chassis render them uncatchable to most
If you'll refer to the book "The Lotus Twin Cam Engine" by Miles
Wilkins, you'll find that 180HP type numbers are considered attainable
only with extreme compression _and_ unlimited carburetion. The AP
Loti run under a venturi size limit of 32mm, which imposes a lower
ceiling on engine output.
>About the only cars to give the Lotii any competition the past couple years
>are hi-horsepower (450?) Tigers, and the Witt's Vixen
How many cars in that class target their autocross season toward Topeka?
How many buy brand new, softest-compound tires just for that event? How
many set the car up for concrete, and travel to find it, even though their
home site may be blacktop? How many make sure they enter the Topeka warm-up
event to scrub those brand new, purpose-bought tires to perfection, and to
make last-minute adjustments to the car for the Topeka site? I usually
see Barry's Tiger at the warm-up, but not many others from AP.
Oh by the way, we're not there any more. Whine about someone else. :-)
Craig Straub:
> 4. Lotuses weighing a 1,000 pounds. Sports Car, May 1993, had a technical
> article on Chris O'Donnell's Lotus Elan, and it weighed 1,376 pounds. Some
This is correct; that car typically weighs in the high 1300's at Impound.
It's just plain blindingly fast. Chris spends a lot of money (Cosworth
motor, Motec engine management), makes a lot of power, and drives very
hard. So be it. I don't think he should have to haul 200 lbs of lead
to go slower so a less-optimized car can beat him. And I think you could
build his car for a lot le$$ somewhere other than Southern California.
Craig, again:
> with lexan. Strip the interior down and the sound proofing off. Other
> drivers have entered modified classes wanting everyone else to weigh what
> they do without doing such preparation.
As with other categories, there are going to be varying levels of expenditure
and dedication. It's fairly logical that those who are more committed will
have a higher likelihood of success than those who are less so.
Karen Babb
"used to be a Lotus hater, before the 12-step treatment program"
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