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Re: PROPOSAL: Super Street Touring

To: Joshua Hadler <jhadler@rmi.net>, autox@autox.team.net, werace4u@aol.com
Subject: Re: PROPOSAL: Super Street Touring
From: dg50@daimlerchrysler.com
Date: Thu, 1 Jul 1999 19:05:55 -0400

> However, the big thing I think is
> going to be  the fact that these folks have, for the most part, come
> from a venue that his little if any actual rules structure pertaining > to car
preparation. Anything they encountered in the SCCA short of an > E-Mod kindof
environment is going to chafe badly.

This is _precisely_ the problem we have today with Stock, Street Prepared, and
Prepared today - and why the proposed SST rules structure is so open-ended.

I don't think anyone is going to chafe under the SST rules. As long as you start
with a production car, don't tube-frame it or strip it too much, and it weighs
enough, you're legal.

> Who's going to run SST? A few radical enthusiasts, and a whole lot of
> folks who have cars that are somewhere between ST/CSP and SST. Too
> blown somewhere to qualify for the ST/SP class, and way too underblown > for
the limits of SST.

Ahhh, but you've said the magic words: "a whole lot of folks". As in "a whole
lot of folks who were previously disenfranchised" I see that as a good thing.

So what if the top guns in the class have super-expensive, fully-prepared cars?
It provides a role model for the not-so-fully-prepared masses. Something to
aspire to - and one HELL of a promotional opportunity. Wouldn't it be neat to
have "Josh Hadler's extreme SST Quantum" on the cover of Super Street? Not just
for the personal ego-boo, but for the exposure that it'd give the sport?

> They both have the map to follow. One just requires more exotic body
> work to accomplish. Probably no more expensive however.

No way. There's a vast difference between a built-from-the-ground-up racecar,
and a daily-driver-slowly-converted-to-a-racecar. The two are not the same,
there is no way to get from one to the other, and the "proper racecar" will
always be faster, lighter, and more expensive.

Maybe not "more expensive over time" (it may cost the same aggrigate amount of
money to build both) but the production-based car uses smaller quanta. It's not
so much how much you spend, but how much you spend all at once.

> Funny car? Top fuel? Nitro? They're light years beyond anything a
> production based car is capable of. Effectively the E-Mod of the drag
> racing arena.

Yup. But the guys filling the stands right now (David, Vinny, Viet et al) are
all driving production-based cars. These guys are attracting nearly the same
crowds as John Force - which amazes the hell out of me.

>> 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?

> Yeah, early Hondas, easy.

Got numbers?

DG





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