Hi all,
I was a bit perplexed last night, but after sleeping
on it, I think I know what to do - but I'd like to hear
your thoughts on this matter anyway.
As a few of you know, I've been contemplating fuel
injection for our TR-4 autocross car. Based on one
interpretation of the Prepared class rules, I'd only have
to carry a 55 lb weight penalty for doing so. This reading
of the rule book was re-inforced by the results of a protest
at the Solo II Nationals last year, which ruled that the
2300 lb maximum was in fact the maximum weight for any car
in the class - and that therefore, my weight penalty would
be the aforementioned 55 lbs. A phone call to Jim Leighthauser
(the Solo II technical guru) also confirmed this interpretation;
however, unbeknownst to me, he knew about this protest and
may have based his answer on that.
From talking to several folks, I'd determined that F/I
would be worth the 55 lbs, since it would broaden my torque
curve - especially at low to mid rpm ranges - and would still
give me a bit more top end power. So, I had begun the research
as to what all I'd need to do to retro-fit fuel injection to
the TR-4.
You can imagine my unpleasant reaction last night when I
finally received the offical letter from the SEB (my request
for a clarification went in on September 19th...). Apparently
the 1997 Solo II rule book has been re-written to cover this
point, and the 10% weight penalty for non-stock fuel injection
is applied *after* the 2300 maximum - that is, the weight
penalty for our car will be 225 pounds, not 55!
In retrospect, this shouldn't have surprised me, since the
loser of the protest at Nationals (ie, the one who wanted more
weight added to the Audi with non-stock fuel injection) was
Paul Krysiak, whose wife/SO is Kathleen Barnes - this year's
SEB chair.
So, the question comes down to whether to proceed with
the fuel injection setup for the car and take the extra weight,
or stick with the carbs (I'm allowed to use any carb I want)
and crank fire ignition, and keep the car at 2245 lbs?
thanks,
John Lye
rjl6n@virginia.EDU
http://avery.med.virginia.edu/~rjl6n/homepage.htm
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