I'm not taking you wrong, in fact, I agree with you.
I liked the idea of the contest too. What I didn't
like is that the rules were so easily "stretched" (if
in fact they really were.)
I also agree that it's a shame that there were people
who took it as serious as F1.
I was working to get a car ready for the challenge,
but ran WAY behind schedule, and decided to forget
about it this year. Maybe next time.
What I do think is that if they are going to have a
contest aimed at the "grassroots, backyard, low-buck,
etc., etc." (call it what you want) enthusiast, they
should at least make some reasonable effort to curb
the possibilities of an F1 team effort. This could
have been achieved without making it an
"over-rulebooked anality fest."
Why not explain the "1500 limit" as "You are only
allowed to be 1500 poorer than when you started this
project." It seems that is what they really meant.
The problem however, was that everyone assumed that it
meant "You can't spend more than 1500 total on the
car."
It is possible to buy a 500 car and spend 2000 on it,
but still only come away being 1500 bucks lighter in
the bank account...and still be able to be legal
according to the rules.
To clarify this one point would have done a LOT to
curb the psycho-pro builders, and keep our whining
about it to a minimum.
One other thing that would have been helpful in all
this is reading the rules and the FAQ regarding the
1500 challenge on the GRM web-site. I haven't done
that in a while, and maybe my concerns were addressed
in there somewhere and I just forgot it.
One more thing. I like GRM, their staff, and what
they stand for. I'm not trying to slam them in any
way...Keep up the good work.
Sorry to go on like this, but I love to "discuss" this
stuff...
Buddy
--- "Mark J. Andy" <marka@telerama.com> wrote:
> Howdy,
>
>
> I thought the point of the grm $1.5k challenge was
> to do what any one of
> the standard "low buck car enthusiast" types would
> do when building a race
> car? With that in mind, I think the rules were
> pretty darn good. I know
> that I'll be selling parts I don't need off the '86
> mustang I'm building
> for CP. I also know I'm not gonna count my time in
> any sort of financial
> way as its something I enjoy doing. And finally I
> suspect that like many
> of you out there I'm in between an average homeowner
> mechanic and a
> professional, and I have friends that are good at
> the stuff I don't know.
>
> I think the contest was cool. I also don't think it
> was supposed to be
> some psycho over-rulebooked thing like the typical
> SCCA anality-fest. I
> recall that it started out as a challenge amoung the
> magazine editors and
> was then expanded to include others when they
> expressed a desire to join
> in.
>
> Not trying to jump down your throat, just can't
> believe that some folks
> are taking a fun contest and trying to turn it into
> Formula 1.
>
> Mark
>
>
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