Thanks for sharing the e-mail. I wonder if SCCA has ever considered taking a
true independent survey about its membership's opinions. There is alot of
frustration out there among car owners who find themselves with non-
competitive cars after only a few years.
Case in point. Our small LOL region had about seven RX-7 that regularly
competed in ITA. Now it is lucky to have one or two show up. The SCCA added
some cars to the class that were inherently faster, making the Rx7 or other
cars non-competitive. Instead of giving the RX7 (as well as the other cars)
some weight or engine adjustments, they simply let them become non-competitive
in the class. (Essentially saying to it members, it time to build build a new
race car if you want to be competitive in ITA.). Most of the RX7 guys have
stopped racing.
The RX7 was a relatively inexpensive and reliable car to race in ITA. A
competitive car could be built for less than $10,000. The only real
competitive opportunity for these car now is to go to SCCA production class.
But to be competitive in that class requires the car to undergo expensive
modifications (suspension, flaring, new wheels, potential carb changes, etc.).
The allowed changes will certainly allow the car to go much faster. But
frankly, most of us RX7 guys would have preferred to stay in the regional ITA
classes and have more modest adjustment be made to our allowed setups.
An interesting side issue is that many of the new cars in the class are front
wheel drive cars. The racing lines of front wheel vs rear wheel drive cars is
different. More specifically, their turn in point is different and creates a
situation that if they are sometimes no longer visible in your mirrors by the
time you would normally begin you turn in on many corners (especially when
they are about to overtake you). It creates a very difficult and unsafe
situation.
Some west coast members got together and created a spec class for RX7s - a car
that is nearly stock and street legal. It allows one to build a race car for
about $5,000. [Unfortunately, the older SCCA ITA Mazdas are so modified from
stock that changing them back to this class is really not economically
attractive.] Hopefully SCCA central office will keep its hands off this spec
class.
So, if you SCCA prod guys begin to see more RX7s in your class, that is why.
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