>Nonetheless, the cars seem to have been deliberately targeted towards
competition.
Of COURSE they were deliberately targeted towards competition. I don't see
that that has to necessarily be a bad thing.
It would be a very bad thing for the sport if:
[The cars were very expensive or the cars were very rare or the cars were
only sold in part of the country or the cars were limited to somebody who
knows somebody at the factory] AND [the cars were classed as overdogs].
Since the ACR was reasonably-priced and widely available, I can't see the
downside to the sport. It was good for autocrossing and it was good for
road racing. It was an incentive for other manufacturers to offer
good-handling cars for retail sale at reasonable prices. While I don't give
a damn about the politics of Club Racing per se, the spin-off of the ACR to
the autocross world was a good thing in my book. The spin-off to the
autocross world of the "trunk kit" nonsense was not a good thing in my book.
You can debate if the ACR was classified as an overdog in Solo2. I
personally think it was not. But even if it was, the car was available and
inexpensive enough that I don't think it hurt the sport to any great extent.
Phil Ethier Saint Paul Minnesota USA
Lotus Europa, VW Quantum Syncro, Chev Suburban
LOON, TCVWC, MAC
pethier@isd.net http://www.visi.com/mac/
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