Well folks, here comes my completely unbiased opinion... (yeah, so what if
my car is a 79 camaro with hilborns; it's up for sale anyway)
I like the idea of setting up some new classes for the "classic" muscle type
stuff. We now have classes for the vintage stuff, and part of the reason is
to protect the heritage of our sport. As newer technology and aerodynamics
set records at astonishingly higher levels, many of the cars out there cease
to be run because they can never even be "in the ball park".
The new records are great, and I don't ever want to slow anybody down, but I
also think that it is not out of line to establish classes where people can
run the really neat older speed parts and still be somewhat competitive. I
don't want to see all the old Hilborns turned into mantelpiece decorations.
There is something about pre-computer stuff that really makes it feel like
Hot Rodding. If we can preserve the heritage of the vintage cars, or even
the roadsters, it won't hurt us to preserve a little of the muscle era, and
I think it should include some technology as well as model year limitations.
As such, the proposed model year range seems reasonable as it sorts out most
of the newer sleeker bodies that you have to run now if you want to play
with the big boys. I built a 79 camaro because it was what I could get for
300 bucks (no engine or trans, but I was going to throw those away anyway).
And what else would you do with a 51 Studebaker besides race it at the
Lakes/Bonneville? Some of these cars are just crying to be made into race
cars, but they will never be picked, since you would be foolish not to use
one of the newer "aero" cars if you want to be competitive.
For technology, I think something along the lines of "computers are allowed
for data collection purposes only", as in the vintage classes, should be
sufficient. No EFI, no fancy sensored variable spark control. Stuff like
that wasn't on most of the early muscle, and if we are going to preserve the
"era" (as well as allow people to build cars from stuff at the local swap
meet), I think we should try to keep it simple. As far as crank triggers, I
don't care where the signal comes from as long as you don't "computer" it up
after you get it. That seems like a window dressing issue to me.
As far as the number of classes goes, it doesn't bother me to have a few
more, especially when there is such a large number of existing cars out
there that will fall right into these classes. And it might even bring out a
few oldies but goodies that nobody has seen in a while. One of the main
things that makes this kind of racing fun is the diversity of the cars and
the people who run them. I'm all for protecting that diversity by giving
"muscle" a chance to compete, and not just be lost in the onslaught of
technology. It is supposed to be fun, isn't it?
David Parks, proud old camaro owner...
|