On 3/11/2018 3:52 PM, Terry Stetler via Fot wrote:
>
> I totally agree with Glen and Tony here. The skinny, hard Dunlops
> would be great if it were the spec tire for all production classes.
>
> Sadly, the technological genie is out of the bottle, and once that
> happens, putting him (or her) back in that bottle is essentially
> impossible.
>
The mindset of vintage racers is a bit different than SCCA or IMSA, but,
I have the feeling that the hard chargers will still push those old
skinny skins beyond their limits, and spins would prevail, which are
certain to cause more bent sheet metal than currently is the case, and
vintage racing intends, in large part, to keep both drivers and cars in
one piece and looking pretty much as they did before racing commenced.?
But, this is not a new subject, and as for originality and the "old
days," I do remember walking into a Triumph shop in New England in 1970
that ran an SCCA TR4A IRS, and it was wearing big, fat cheater slicks....
The larger question of when a safety improvement is a performance
improvement in disguise is not one that's going to be resolved simply or
easily.? Generally, bits that don't break unexpectedly are a safety
enhancement, as Tony makes clear.? We don't think about safety in the
same way as in 1962, because we know a lot more about it, especially
from the experience of others.? No one gets too excited about helmet
restraints, because we know a lot more today about TBI and its causes
than we did then, for example.? We could get quite priggish about
originality, but, would anyone today say that the stock fuel tanks were
just fine and fuel cells are an unnecessary expense, knowing what we
know about fires, or that four-point roll cages aren't original, and
therefore shouldn't be allowed (even though there's clearly a
performance advantage to them in stiffening the chassis, if done cleverly)?
But, one thing that everyone so far is unwilling to admit is that we are
inveterate tinkerers, and saying, "well, this little piece of shit part
that fails every Friday like it had a timer built into it was good
enough for the factory in 1962, so it's good enough for me" just isn't
in the vocabulary of most of us.? Kas must have file cabinets full of
dynamometer test results as proof of that.? In that regard, the rules
always have some rubber built into them, whether it's apparent to all or
not.? No one goes into this hobby with the belief that a DNF every
weekend is great fun.
Cheers.
--
Michael Porter
Roswell, NM
Never let anyone drive you crazy when you know it's within walking distance....
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