I have stayed out of this thread until now. Let's talk about Curt's car
for a second. It is as close to a perfect 911 for autocross that
exists. No expense was spared to create the car, no advantage that the
rules allow was passed up. It started from nothing and was built by the
best in the business (wrt 911's) to be a winning car. That car cost as
much as 4-5 Lotus Elan's to build. A Tri-Point RX7TT falls into this
same category.
I also have a car that up to now has cost 4 or so Lotus's to build, and
I have probably another one to go before it is competitive (a 911 RS
America). In this car the driver needs to get up to speed also (me) but
past national champion's have driven the car against Curt and Loti and
in both cases it is not quite there yet.
Why do I bring this up? Because two years ago, a Lotus Elan showed up
to Nationals after having been driven once or twice all year (A Lotus
Elan), ran on three tires that were three years old and one that was two
years old (he corded one of the three year old tires) and walked away
with the national championship. This same car showed up to the Wendover
ProSolo as its next event (some 9 months later) and gave Curt a heck of
a time. Same tires from Nationals the previous year...
I have run against some other Lotus's in California where the caliber of
driver is not up to Shauna and Curt and yet the car is right there in
the lead or very, very close behind. The best car in ASP is a Lotus
Elan. The RS7TT is very good, and with a great driver behind the wheel
is competitive, but competitive with an average driver behind the wheel
of a Elan.
There is also this little problem with numbers. There were not enough
'66 and '67 Elan's made to make it in SP. They were grandfathered in a
long time ago, and stayed in even after all other "Letters" from the SEB
had been nullified. They should not legally be in SP.
So the best of breed version of the 911 or the RX7TT (and considering
the current uproar about increasing boost with Legal mods, maybe even
these cars will be rendered helpless) with great drivers in them can
compete, on some courses (the north course at Nationals last year was a
high horsepower course!) can be competitive...maybe. That to me does
not make an interesting class, or one that I will return to nationals to
run in.
Doug Hebenthal
81 ASP, Got killed by all of the above last year...10th in ASP
>Jodi Fordahl wrote:
>
>> Having
>> driven the car the last couple of weekends and lots of other ASP
911's I
>> would say that Curt's car has the best shot at doing well at
Nationals than
>> any other I've driven, but I don't believe it can win.
>
>It puzzles me when he comes within .8 seconds of Shauna's combined two
>day times at Nationals and yet I hear someone say they believe the car
>"can't win." Is it really the case that neither car nor driver could
>possibly have had the potential for that extra .4 sec per day that
would
>have been needed? Are we to believe that the car is perfectly prepped
>and the driver drove it perfectly? I accept that this is possible, and
>that Curt is one of the drivers who might pull this off, but is it
>probable?
>
>It IS clearly the case that Dwight Mitchell's 911 could win ASP; it did
>so in 1990 and 1994. And no, I don't know the course conditions or car
>prep levels or the mental state of his competitors those years,
although
>I'm sure Scotty can provide all that information to prove that Dwight
>really shouldn't have won and the Lotus drivers are all subpar and none
>of the Lotuses was as fast as it could have been, etc.
>
>I'm not interested in anything but common sense here. It appears that
>there is a tremendous amount of superstitious fear of Lotuses that is
>entirely unjustified. As high performance cars go, they're cheap, and
>there are still plenty of Elans and Europas around in case anyone is
>feeling rained on because "they can't find one." Parts are available
and
>generally cheaper than German car parts, and the cars are, for the most
>part, easy to work on. Why is there such hysteria about these cars?
>
>Jay "it's just a car" Mitchell
>
>
>
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