Well, I spent most of last night thinking this over (even when I was watching
the fireworks - I have no life. :) and came in this morning and read all the
_great_ feedback people have been sending me.
To address my opinion on some topics that have come up:
1) Why no head porting? Because ported heads aren't a bolt-on. The intent is to
limit what can be done to the car (as much as possible) to stuff you can buy at
the local speed shop and slap on in a weekend. Porting, if done right, requires
a flowbench, a dyno, and either an expensive skilled porter, or an even more
expensive CNC machine and an expensive programmer. Porting is _easily_ the
single most expensive part of building a motor.
However, porting is also necessary for the "all motor" crowd to be able to run
with the turbos, so we should probably allow it. What's the opinion on
aftermarket head castings?
2) Why no 2-seaters? (And I'm adament on this one) Weight, and to a certain
extent, balance. The minimum weight has to be such that no car that is eligible
for the class is underweight stock, and if you allow two seaters, that minimum
weight gets VERY low. Seriously lightweight cars have a tremendous advantage, so
the minimum weight has to be fairly high . 1500lb Honda CRXen and Miatae and
what have you just don't fit here.
So the formula is 4 seats, front engine, hardtop. Sorry. If someone wants to
champion a similarly structured (but separate) 2-seater class I'd support it.
3) What about the cost? (The Josh Hadler argument - the idea that a Real Hotshoe
will jump in an SST - btw, I _really_ like that class designation :) - blow the
competition away at Nationals, and ruin everything. Alternatively, that someone
who knows how to set up Solo cars will build a class killer, blow everyone away,
and ruin everything)
This is a legit point, and it has two parts 1) A Hotshoe (driver, car setup, or
both) builds a fully prepared car, and wins Nationals. 2) When #1 occurs (and it
is a foregone conclusion, I agree) it kills the class.
I don't agree that having a Hotshoe kill at Nationals is a bad thing. In fact,
quite the opposite. This is, for the most part, a "run whacha brung" class. The
expectation is that those who bring more to the party will do better - that's
the way drag racing works, after all. The important distinction between this and
the existing Modified classes is _that there's an obvious upgrade path to get
there_.
Consider Joe Riceboy in his Fiero (ok, I know, it's a 2 seater mid-engine car -
bear with me) He slaps a turbo on the car, and winds up in EMod, running next to
that National Championship winning "Fiero" What's his upgrade path? "First,
throw out your car. Second, buy a Sports 2000 chassis. Third, have a custom-made
Fiero body made to fit over this chassis...."
There's no way to get there from here, whereas Joe Riceboy (now a Honda Civic
owner) when presented with the Tripp Tatum turbocharged SST Civic (and a similar
margin of victory, assuming Tripp keeps out of the cones :) can come over, look
at the car, and map out whatever series of steps he needs to get there. It may
take him 5 years and all his lunch money, but it CAN be done, and it can be done
(for the most part) piecemeal.
What's more, I think a National caliber hotshoe or two should be _encouraged_ to
play - because the sport needs heroes. This is the demographic that will put
60,000 people in the stands to watch people like Viet Lam, Vinny Ten, and
(blatent sponsor plug) David Buschur come race - and then they go out and
emulate these guys. Hell, David will sell you everything you need to make a 9
second Talon, if you want. And sell he does.
Will the National level get expensive? Damn straight it will. It should - this
is Nationals, after all. (Or ProSolo) They're _supposed_ to be the best. They're
_supposed_ to be the role models. Lemme put it this way - do you think any drag
racer seriously expects to be immediately competitive with the likes of John
Force? The trick is that there has to be a path for them to follow, and the
current "get thee to EMod" structure doesn't work, because there's no way a
production-based car will ever be able to compete with "real" modified cars - so
why bother?
4) "Never have so many spent so much for so little" Heh, try competitive drag
racing. John Force gets, what, 16 seconds of seat time per event? For that
matter, most of the IHRA guys get something like 32 seconds of seat time per
event, and their ride is a whole lot less exciting than ol' Johnny Force's. Pays
less too.
5) "If you build it, they will come - not!" I sorta agree. For this to work the
way I envision, you need two things. 1) The class 2) Effective promotion. #1 is
our job, #2 is in the hands of both us and Denver.
If you build it - and you flog it a little in Super Street, Turbo, and Sport
Compact Car - they will come.
6) Minimum weights:
Here's what I'm thinking is workable, all weights with driver:
Non-turbo 4 cyls: 2300lbs
Turbo 4s / NT 6s: 2600lbs
Turbo 6 cyls : 3000lbs
I'm concerned that there may be eligible non-turbo 4 and 6 cars that are
underweight stock - can anybody with better access to stats than I confirm/deny
this?
DG
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