richard nichols wrote:
>
> Joshua wrote:
>
> > As Dennis said, a car
> >registered in California is going to be seriously hampered by laws and
> >regulations compared to say, a car in Alaska or some other state that
> >has NO emissions requirements
>
> Wulll, gotta admit that what I know about how cars are hampered by emissions
> these days is limited. But my own turbocar, the SVO, was identically
> equipped for all 50 states (CA cars simply paid more for that to be
> "official"), and that's as far back as the 84-86 MYs.
Richard,
We're not talking about daily drivers here. We're talking about
complete engine transplants and turbo or supercharger add-ons. How many
inspector stations in California (draconian smog laws, I've suffered
them myself) do you think will let one of those pass through? Your car
is still essentially the same configuration as it was when it arrived on
the showroom floor. A turbocharged VTEC Civic is not, much less a
supercharged miata.
> For the record, not that I recall Joshua mentioning it, in this thread I
> haven't advocated keeping R tires out to keep costs down. For me it's
> strictly philosophical, and must have some merit, or there wouldn't be the
> base ST class. And I'd jump right in there, but they won't have me: turbo.
I didn't mention cost either, Dennis did. I simply said that if we're
going to give them almost every allowance under the sun, why should we
restrict them on something so simple, and innexpensive (compared to a
motor transplant) that will so greatly effect the performance of the car.
> The class is called "Street Touring" -- and we already have *lots* of
> classes that allow R tires (like Stock, which never did make sense to me,
> and Street Prepared, and Prepared, and etc., even the local Street
> Modified). Strategically it makes sense to me to allow ST classes to have
> the R tires the other classes have (and in general, SP is lots more
> inclusive as to mods).
Well ST is another bag. SST, or STU, seems to be proposed for
sky-is-the-limit street going cars. In other words, E-Mod for the
masses. R tires are mundane in comparison to the exotic gadgetry going
on in these cars. It would seem foolish to limit them to street tires,
as foolish as it would be to limit them to a stock wheel size.
> But I agree it wouldn't be right to exclude folks who've spent time/money to
> prep for STU from playing on their R tires. It's just that, if we're
> *really* trying to attract more players, Rs is not the way to go, even if
> they've spent a fortune (I've seen *used* tire and wheel sets for sale here
> in San Diego, which has a huge RR contingent, for $5k) on their street
> setups, 'cause at least they can play on 'em.
If they're going to spend a fortune and a half for their street rod, do
you think they'll really blink much at an extra $1k for fancy dan wheels
and tires? Somehow I doubt it. No, not everybody is going to sink their
dime on wheels and tires, and not everybody is going to spend $10-20k on
making a Civic that'll beat a camaro down the 1/4 mile. It's a matter of
extremes. We're proposing to allow almost any extreme that rolls down
the road, and we're going to restrict them on tires? Sounds rediculous
to me. And considering that "R" tires, the fastest DOT tires in the
country, are in fact street legal, they're yet another aspect of the
"extreme machine" that SST/STU should be trying to attract.
-Josh2
--
Joshua Hadler '74 914 2.0 CSP/Bi - Hooligan Racing #29 - CONIVOR
'87 Quantum Syncro - aka stealth quattro
jhadler@rmi.net
http://rainbow.rmi.net/~jhadler/
|