>Can someone also give a little history about how the SCCA classifies cars?
>The literature I have that has references to SCCA competition of the '60s
>and '70s would indicate that things are different now. How/Why did they
>evolve?
In the Good Old Days, the Sports Car Club of America used to run
essentially four categories of closed-wheel cars.
Sedans were basically defined as anything with a roof and a back seat.
Production sports cars were basically two-seaters without a roof, made
in regular series production runs of over a certain minimum number. The
kinds of cars we would all go out and buy for $2395 at the dealer if we
could go back in time.
Sports-Racing cars were purpose-built race-only cars, a category
that really came into its own in the late Fifties (before that, all
sports cars were racing cars and vice versa). The Lotus Eleven
ran in Sports-Racing, the Lotus Seven or Elan in Production.
Modified cars were those in which the engines had been changed or
that were homebuilt specials. This included things like the Sprite-Buick
that I saw run at Vaca Valley Raceway about 1966, for instance.
Within these categories the cars were divided up by performance
potential, roughly by weight and displacement. There were letters
given to the individual classes, from A -- the largest and most
powerful -- to H -- the smallest and lightest. In 1965 terms,
for instance, a Big Block Corvette would have run in AP while a
Frogeye Sprite would have run in HP. For the most part, A and B
Production were the realms of the Americans, with Corvettes,
later Cobras and GT-350s dominating AP and BP in the US.
Over the years, things changed. The SCCA evolved in several ways,
not all of them good nor all of them bad. One big change was the
introduction of Showroom Stock in the early Seventies. This class
called for no modifications to the performance of the cars, and with
mandatory safety gear such as roll bars, fire systems, etc. Originally
conceived as a way to get people into racing at the lowest cost (permitting
no preparation other than safety), SS soon became a factory marketing tool.
At the same time, the Production category -- originally requiring all
street-legal gear, at least in the Fifties -- had changed, permitting
all sorts of modifications to engine and suspension. You couldn't
change the type of suspension (for instance, if your car came from the
factory with a solid axle you couldn't put in IRS) but you could
change many other elements of it. You couldn't change the engine but
you could build it as hot as your budget and your right foot permitted.
Modified and Sports-Racer classes changed as well. As the number of
companies manufacturing what the SCCA had originally considered production
sports cars dwindled, the SCCA (under competitive pressure from IMSA as
well) introduced the Grand Touring (GT) category, replacing the old
modifieds. Sports Racers still exist, as do Production. Sports Racer
classes are still essentially open classes, with only displacement and
weight limits to define performance. I know of only four classes in
Sports Racer, A through D. In many cases, Sports Racing cars use
formula car chassis with closed-fender bodywork. Production is still
for production sports cars, most of which are 20 years old at this point.
However, there are also only four classes in the Production category,
E through H. A through D production were phased into the five GT
classes, numbered GT-1 through GT-5, as were a number of other sedans,
sport coupes, and other vehicles that were classified in GT, with
appropriate modifications.
To summarize, the SCCA has several categories of racing cars today:
GT category, containing GT-1 through GT-5. Massive changes permitted
(can basically use tube-frame chassis under bodywork that must allude
to the original car's appearance). The Trans-Am race cars seen on TV
are little different from GT-1 cars. The current national champion
in GT-5 is a tube-frame Mini.
Production category, containing EP, FP, GP and HP. Must use original
chassis, engine, suspension types; carburetion specified in rulebook,
wheel and tire width also regulated. Otherwise lots of room for
modification -- camshaft selection, compression, piston type (though
displacement increases limited), and exhaust are basically free. Cars
have minimum weight limits. Basically, EP contains MGBs, TR4s and TR3s,
Porsches -- consider it cars between 1600 and 2000 cc. FP contains
1300cc Spitfires, 1275 Midgets/Sprites, 1300cc Alfas and the like. GP
is for 1098cc Spridgets, 1147cc Spitfires, pushrod Datsun roadsters,
etc. HP is Bugeye Sprites, Mk I Midgets/Mk II Sprites, and Fiat 850s.
Showroom Stock is for new cars, so that the factories can run full-page
ads in Car & Track or Road & Driver to show off their enormous genitals.
Rules are meant to keep costs down and to make it hard to cheat; instead,
they just make it expensive to be competitive. Must use all factory
components, including stock filters, plugs, brake pads, etc. The
only class of cars in which the tires are the noisiest part of a race.
Improved Touring is for SS cars that are more than five years old. Meant
as another low-dollar category, IT cars can have certain suspension
modifications (springs, shocks are free), some engine preparation (basic
blueprinting and balancing but stock cam profile, limited compression
enhancements, no porting more than 1" from the manifold gasket) and
free exhaust systems with spec carburetors for each car in the book.
The only class of cars in which the sound of mashing body panels is
the noisiest part of a race.
Spec Racer (formerly Sports Renault): what Denver wishes we were all
driving. All cars exactly alike ("you can paint anything any color
you want" is the one exception). These cars use 1.7L Renault
Appliance engines mounted in the rear of a light tube-frame chassis
using fairly attractive bodywork and a single driver's seat. The
engines can only be worked on (barring oil, filter and plug changes)
by licensed SCCA Customer Service Reps (CSRs), who stamp certain parts
with a seal to ensure against unauthorized tampering. SRs cost about
ten grand, go just fast enough (in Scott Griffith's terms) to cause every
sphincter muscle in your body to relax simultaneously, and are known
as Sports Rambo due to the, ah, aggressive passing techniques these
identical cars tend to inspire.
Sports Racing: as previously described. Really fast cars in the
higner displacement classes. Even the little ones, DSR (using
either a 1300cc automobile engine or a 1000cc motorcycle engine,
with the bike motors getting the nod for most cases), are quick
as hell and fun to look at. The last bastion of individual
creativity in the increasingly market-share-oriented SCCA. It
looks like the kind of class in which you could bolt the drivetrain
from a totalled Mini to the back of a garden cart, slap on fiberglass
panels, and go racing. As mentioned before, though, many of the
cars in this class begin as formula car chassis and have bodywork
added to them.
There are also several formula car classes in the SCCA but I'm not
an open-wheel expert, so I'll leave them for someone who is. (The
Byzantine nestings of the Fords alone, what with club, spec, formula,
2000, etc. are enough to drive me to drink.)
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