At 12:40 AM 10/30/00, Jeff Winchell wrote:
>Before this year began, the SEB ruled the car should be moved because
>a fully developed car driven by an A driver couldn't be competitive in CSP.
>
>Now the year is over, and it has been PROVEN that the M3 was driven
>faster than last year and would be competitive in CSP, the SEB (and all
>the M3 ESP fans) are ignoring that.
No, that is a misrepresentation of the arguments presented, and an improper
conclusion from the results. Such logic would just as well support moving
the Miata to AS or keeping a mis-classed stock M3 in BS. The stock M3 does
not belong in BS...
And the SP M3 does NOT belong in CSP. It belongs in either BSP or ESP...
with other heavy, higher HP cars. The M3 makes no sense in a class with the
CRX and other tiny cars. It seems to make more sense in ESP with other
similarly-powered, similarly-weighing, four-seater cars. BSP is full of
two-seater, lower, lighter, but-still-high-powered sports cars.
The results of the first day... the best M3 and the best pony car were
fairly close (0.32s). The second day, the best M3 driver had an awesome
drive...
he overcooked it and survived. That happens in every sport... people have
good days and great days. Using such isolated results to declare dominance
is silly. Especially when the split was typical of past years' results,
without the M3; and especially when the split was less than the splits between
Mark's own runs... given a fourth run, maybe Mark would've won it. Hardly a
strong statement of car superiority!
In lieu of getting Mark to Rocky Mountain events or Bob to Texas events,
here's what I suggest:
Collect a group of top autocrossers with experience driving multiple different
cars well, but with no interest in BSP or ESP... John Thomas, Brian Priebe,
Mark Daddio, Nick Leverone, etc. Get Mark's car, Bob's car, and
a top BSP car together. Set up a course or two. Let the group drive them and
decide which pair belongs together. I will gladly submit to their collective
opinions.
Without that, the M3 seems properly classed to me... much more evidence is
needed to indicate it is too fast for ESP. And physically, the M3 makes most
sense in ESP.
Brian
P.S. Its been argued that putting the M3 in AS rather than FS is an indicator
that it doesn't belong in ESP. Its also been argued that if you drive stock
versions of each, you'll see the M3 is clearly a class above. I agree the
stock
M3 is better than the stock pony cars.... but I do NOT agree that has any
bearing
at all on SP. The M3 is extremely well tuned from the factory... about all
you
can do going to SP is dial out a bit more understeer and change the ECU. Most
other mods have little to negative impact. The ponycars, OTOH, can be improved
a lot going to SP. Thus, the SP versions of the two cars are actually much
more similar than the S versions are.
FWIW.
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