But do you autocross into potholes? Shock loads from all sorts of "road
anomalies" encountered at normal speeds on normal roads including potholes,
road patches, intersecting road crowns, train tracks, etc will thrash a
chassis much more than the *relatively* low-frequency and low peak force
stresses in autocrossing.
Will Kalman
'91 Escort GT
CSCC #232 STS
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike Smith" <msmith2@columbus.rr.com>
To: <autox@autox.team.net>
Sent: Monday, June 25, 2001 8:24 PM
Subject: Re: Big Brother is watching
> WHAT!? Not that much different?
>
> Umm, do you drive to work on race tires, or do you switch them in every
> morning???
>
> The better DOT race tires get, the further away from what car engineers
> intended they are. People will advise against running real racing slicks
on
> a stock car. Do you know why that is? It's because the loads generated by
> them will eventually tear the suspension and chassis apart. Well, DOT race
> tires get closer to that performance level with every tire generation.
>
> On another note, there HAVE to be provisions in warranties for "customer
> behavior" that I call "stupid human tricks"... Things like not changing
> your oil for 30,000 miles, or putting a nitrous bottle out back. The guy
> with nitrous might not be "racing" either. Maybe, he's just having fun
with
> it. Does that mean a maker should warranty the connecting rod sticking out
> of his block? Of course not. Our "race tires" are precisely along that
same
> vein. They extend a car's capabilities beyond what it was designed for.
> (granted, not as FAR beyond...)
>
> You need a line drawn somewhere, somewhere between allowing aftermarket
> customization, and that hole in the hood the cylinder head made when it
> blew off because the owner turned the boost up too high... However, both
my
> warranty, and my insurance, both explicitly specify "timed competition
> events" as grounds for non-coverage. If there's three words I would use to
> describe an autocross, those would be them.
>
> Besides, I'd like to see the face of an ASE certified technician's face
> after being told to warranty repair my CP Camaro....
>
> Mike
> CP 58
>
> At 10:10 PM 6/25/2001 Monday, you wrote:
> > >Whether you call it racing or not, I don't think a car that fails to
> > >withstand the stress of autocrossing is worth owning and a manufacturer
> > >that tries to hide its own mistakes by
> > >blaming the faults of its car on the behaviour of its customers
deserves
> > >to be lose our business.
> >
> >well said. I don't see how autocross is so different from daily driving
> >that a regular car shouldn't be able the stress of autocross without
> >falling apart, especially one that is new enough to still be under
warranty?
> >
> >jmb
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