This past weekend was the 1999 Diamond Star Shootout. a two-day orgy of drag
racing, autocross, and car-shows dedicated to the Diamond Star cars y'all love
to hate.
This was like the 7th or 8th year this event was run, so it's pretty big. It
attracts representatives from the Big Three of rice rocket magazines - Turbo,
Sport Compact Car, and Super Street.
After the first day's drag race, a tech Q&A session is held where all the major
tuners form a discussion panel, and people can ask tech questions. This year I
was invited to sit on the panel as the token autocross guy.
I talked briefly about the SCCA, and the stuff that's been going on recently WRT
DSMs (focusing on positives as much as possible - I was trying to attract more
people to the sport, not scare them off). I mentioned that we were looking at
STU/SST as a possible home for modified DSMs (not that it was a done deal, but
we were trying, and that I would let them know how it worked out) The kicker
came when I looked out over the 200 or so people gathered there, and told them
that under STU rules, pretty well all of their cars would be legal as is - and I
realized that pretty well every car out there WOULD be STU legal.
Keep in mind that of the roughly 300 cars at the event, there were 4 or 5
ESP-legal cars, and maybe 3 GS-legal cars. Quite literally 97% of the cars there
would be considered EMOD! When I asked how many people would try autocrossing if
STU/SST was open to them, I got a sea of hands.
When I talked to people afterwords about why they weren't autocrossing, the
number one reason was "We're afraid of being screwed by the rules". Number two
was "I don't know how to find my local SCCA chapter"
I also had a long talk with Mike Ferrara of Turbo Magazine. Mike is heavily
involved with the whole Import Drag scene, and is one of the forces behind the
creation of the IDRC. He knows this demographic. When I asked him "how do we
attract more of these guys to autocrosses?" he answered with the following
points:
1) There has to be a class for everyone to play, and have at least a fighting
chance at eventual competitiveness - and MOD wasn't it. (He liked the way STU
sounded)
2) There needs to be some high-profile "hero" drivers to set an example/target
3) It hurts us that every autocross course is different, so that times from
event to event are not comparable - unlike drag racing, where a 10 second car is
a 10 second car. When I told him that spec courses were not likely to happen,
and that autocrossers tended to refer to their performance in terms of reference
drivers (I was 4 tenths of Sam Strano etc.) he stated that high-profile drivers
were then that much more important.
He mentioned that Turbo/Sport Compact Car were looking at doing an "Ultimate
Street Car Challenge" that would combine a drag race, an autocross, and a stereo
sound off (!)
He was of the opinion that this market was ripe for the SCCA, if only the right
things happened.
To that end, I'll be writing up the next-to-last revision of my proposed STU
rules tonight, and posting them tomorrow for comment.
Oh, while I was there, I saw a turbo-equipped Talon that had started life as the
2.0l DOHC non-turbo Neon motored almost-base-model car. When I asked the tuner
(Bill Hahn of Hahn Racecraft) if it would fit on a Neon, he said yes - they've
already equipped a couple of Neons with the exact same kit.
I also saw a Mustang powered by a DSM motor....
Oh, and I corded 2 of my g-forces (after about 80 runs) - and today I ordered
Kuhmos.
DG
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