Re: C4 Vette

[Paul Foster <pfoster@gdi.net>]

Mark Sirota wrote:
> 
> Paul Foster wrote:
> > Is it just me or do other people detect that many SCCA autocrossers
> > are stongly in favor of maintaining the status quo instead of growing
> > this sport by providing classes for _all_ sports car owners to enjoy?
> 
> You make an assumption that providing such classes will grow the sport.
> Reasonable people may have a difference of opinion there.
> 
> I think you'll find that most SCCA autocrossers are strongly in favor
> of growing the sport.  It's just that they don't all happen to agree on
> an approach.

I certainly think that not giving the Corvettes a good place to play in
the stock classes is deleterious to growth. That could easily be
corrected by giving them back their class. By that I mean that there
used to be two tracks in the stock ranks. One was AS-CS-DS-ES-HS and the
other was BS-FS-GS. The former was for lighter and more nimble, but
lower powered cars than the latter. BS was tbe home of the Corvette and
the Corvette contingent came out in droves.

Then the RX7TT came along. I think this car more fits the former mold
than the latter myself. At 2700 lbs it is some 600 lbs lighter than the
Corvette. But it proved to be faster than the Corvettes so it was moved
to SS. Now, you may argue that the RX7TT can only accomplish this feat
by boost creep and disallowing the Viper, but no matter the means it is
done. It is now the Big Kahuna of the stock ranks. This was fine when
the cars could actually be purchased new, but it is getting to be a bit
of a bore now that they are becoming vintage candidates. ;-)

AFAIK, there are 2 ways to 'fix' the situation. One is with more
classes. The other is by assigning handicaps to lesser cars in a class.
Neither approach appears to be very popular. So I guess the answer is
for the owners of these cars to find other places to run. Too bad...

Paul Foster