My .02cents is that the car is very fast. On any course, beatable with a
good driver. On any course, unbeatable with the best driver. Having said
that, if the top drivers drive the top car, everyone who feels
shortchanged by the new factor will say its misclassed.
This was my first season autocrossing. My sube and I did some impressive
things, but beating top drivers in Type R's was not among the list of
accomplishments. 26th at Nationals with about 12 autocrosses experience
ever felt ok, but Im still dissapointed with my first day spins which
sealed that fate right away. And get this, my first run, I was red
flagged after catching up to a Type R, I guess its that top driver theory
in action. Mentally, I thought I had a great run going and was
dissapointed to have to stop 7/8 of the way through. Lost concentration
and started rotating too much and then came the spins. My point, it was
driver skill that put me in 26th, not my car. Put Endicott in my RS and
Im sure that on those courses he would not be in 26th, as I was, but also
not first as he was in the Type R. Leave the Type R in GS, but put my
2001 (hopefully) Turbo Impreza in GS too! That way its all squared up,
all the Preludes, Hi output Integra's, DSM and all the others too. This
sport is great and its only natural that the car of choice will change
year to year, and the top drivers will undoubtedly change with the times.
Oh, it was my understanding that it was in CSP because of the lack of
1000 production units, but then they decided that counting the other
million Integras in the production count was OK, and GS would be its
home. I could very easily be wrong about that though.
Eric Kriemelmeyer
|