R John Lye wrote:
>
> Hi all,
> I was a bit perplexed last night, but after sleeping
> on it, I think I know what to do - but I'd like to hear
> your thoughts on this matter anyway.
This crowd is rarely short on opinions!
> You can imagine my unpleasant reaction last night when I
> finally received the offical letter from the SEB (my request
> for a clarification went in on September 19th...). Apparently
> the 1997 Solo II rule book has been re-written to cover this
> point, and the 10% weight penalty for non-stock fuel injection
> is applied *after* the 2300 maximum - that is, the weight
> penalty for our car will be 225 pounds, not 55!
Sounds like the closing of an exposed loophole, though I'd wonder
if anyone can trace the original intent of the rule. Do you know the
way it behaves in production, as per the GCR? Might be worth a letter
or two if it works out the right way...
> In retrospect, this shouldn't have surprised me, since the
> loser of the protest at Nationals (ie, the one who wanted more
> weight added to the Audi with non-stock fuel injection) was
> Paul Krysiak, whose wife/SO is Kathleen Barnes - this year's
> SEB chair.
I dunno. From what I know of Kathy, she's pretty impartial
when it comes down to this sort of thing.
> So, the question comes down to whether to proceed with
> the fuel injection setup for the car and take the extra weight,
> or stick with the carbs (I'm allowed to use any carb I want)
> and crank fire ignition, and keep the car at 2245 lbs?
>
I'd wager that a fully programmable FI would be better than carbs,
but it will take some dyno time to get it right. And I'd also wager
that you could probably find a few pounds scattered around the car
yet to remove. It'll take getting creative, but I think replacing the
hood and trunk lid with 'glass is probably good for 40 lbs. (At least
if it's allowed, which it is in Production.) That hood is pretty heavy.
After that, you can look to door panels out of thin al, etc. Heck,
an electronic tach is probably good for a pound, Al or kevlar
scattershield is a few pounds, trimming the interior of the trunk
sheetmetal
is 5 lbs.. You get he point. It get's extreeme, but what the heck.
Besides, FI is neat. Possibly it's biggest drawback.
iii
> thanks,
>
> John Lye
>
> rjl6n@virginia.EDU
> http://avery.med.virginia.edu/~rjl6n/homepage.htm
|