In a message dated 11/29/2000 12:40:07 PM Eastern Standard Time,
S800Racer@aol.com writes:
<< Presumably the advantage to widening the body would be to widen the
track
width. Since the PCS spells out the legal track width, I have to question
whether the story is true. Winners get checked the most and it would
doesn't
seem to make much sense to go to the effort of sectioning the body when the
advantage would be nullified the first time an inspector stretched a tape
measure across the wheels. >>
Doug,
Sectioning the body has in fact, been done for many years. Even though
PCS specifies a track dimension, GCR allows plus or minus 2". That makes a
tolerance of 4". PCS lists the standard wheel width and GCR allows this plus
1.5", but with no extra track allowance. Since track is measured centerline
to centerline, the maximum track and wheel width combination may not fit into
the wheel wells, even with the lip trimmed and a slight roll. You were
allowed to vary the wheel offset and could use spacers. Remember that even
after flares were permitted, the wheel opening had to have the correct
profile when viewed from the side. Also, the tire tread could not extend
beyond the opening at its highest point.
On top of that, SCCA never specified tire size. You could sometimes run a
slightly wider tire than you wheels were designed for. In fact, you may have
seen the cantilevered tires that Goodyear and others made that would give 8"
of tread width on a 6" wheel.
Certain cars lended themselves to sectioning better than others. This was
done on Corvettes for quite a while before tech inspectors figured it out. In
reality, I don't ever remember having track checked at the races I went to.
Of course I was never a National Champion either.
It was of course illegal to do this, but it was done. I have seen this in
vintage racing on Corvettes, Porsche 356's & Lotus Elans, to name a few.
Jack Woehrle
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