I worked in CART as an engine guy from 1995 to 2001. All everyone argued about
was traction control and cost containment.
>From my experience, People will spend a certin amount on their car. If they
put $500 into traction control, they will simply take $500 from elsewhere on
the car. If they save $400 in tires, they will spend $400 more on something
else.
There are 2 reasons I am for allowing traction control.
1. Safety. Shredding a tire at over 300 mph is unsafe. It can't be argued that
it's anything but unsafe. It's obvious.
2. If you start (continue) to limit innovation, or even fail to keep pace with
production cars then you run the risk of being made irrelevant. The entire
class structure of SCTA-BNI could become a de-facto "vintage class".
In my mind, cost is not a factor at all (and I am very low budget myself). I
watched CART maintain a ban on semi-automatic transmissions (still do to this
date). The reason was cost. They would add an estimated $100k to a single car
teams yearly budget (6-10 million $$). However, driver induced downshift
overrevs cost the teams from $100K to $400K per season, something that would
have been 100% eliminated with the semi-auto gearbox. \
I also watched CART maintain a strict cost control over how much the engine
leases could cost, to save the teams money. Then the teams took the saved
money and put thier kids in college...ha ha ha. No. They bouight $150,000-
$350,000 hospitality coaches, airplanes, built carbon fiber food delivery cart
(Arciero-Wells), painted the "decals" on the cars rather than put on "drag
inducing" vinyl graphics (A-W again) etc... They were going to spend the
money. No matter what...
Other people have correctly noted the costs versus savings (initial purchase
vs tire wear).
I guess that to sum it all up:
If it doesn't add to the top speed then what's the problem?
If it does add to the top speed then isn't that what it's all about?
Thanks,
John Romero
Thousand Oaks, CA
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