washburn wrote:
> Here's a thought that maybe some of the old timers can comment on.
> (I've only been at this game for a wee bit) Are the stock classes
> closer together overall now than in the past? I'm referring to the
> comment that was made about DS, ES, GS, and HS all being so close in
> performance. Could that be partly because your average non so called
> sports car is a much better and more capable vehicle now as compared
> days past? ... In other words, have the average "grocery getter"
> cars in these classes gotten so much better overall that they now seem
> to be very close to each other?
My gut feeling is that the "lower" Stock classes (especially GS and HS)
have been largely redefined as compared with, say, 10 years ago.
The way I remember it, HS used to be for non-sports cars. That is, true
econoboxes. You wouldn't find a Celica there; those were in ES. You'd
find Tercels and Excels and 323's and Foxes and that sort of thing.
Sometime, somebody must have realized that people interested in
autocross didn't generally drive cars like those, so we were effectively
wasting a class on cars that nobody brought. So HS now includes
somewhat sportier cars -- cars that are much more like ES. Perhaps
Charlie can comment on that.
Personally, I don't think this approach really works, even though it
sounds good. Autocrossers also don't drive Celica ST's, they drive
Celica GTS's. But then, I'm one of those wierdo's who believes strongly
in Best of Breed classing. :-)
Mark
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