"Thompson, Adrian (A.L.)" <athomps9@visteon.com> wrote:
> While I think the basic idea is nice, I also think it's
> unworkable. You could end up with some incredibly expensive vehicles that
> would make some D and E Mod's look tame!
There's no sense quibbling with you over your examples, because each one of them
has merit. It's interesting that I've recieved a bunch of mail from people
highlighting what they feel is the "class killer" setup, and how very little
overlap there is between different folks' idea of what that setup is.
Yes, there's potential for some very fast cars and some very exotic setups in
STU. In fact, that's a selling point. However, the requirement to be street
licenced, to have a minumum set of operating street equipment (to cover
ultra-permissive states) and that the majority of the chassis remain stock
should help keep the cost of a competitive car to below that of a Prepared or
Modified vehicle. STU cars are not allowed unlimited bracing (or if the rules
read that way, they should be changed) You get a SP front and rear strut brace,
and an SP bolt-in roll bar, and that's it. No tube frames, no birdcages, and no
"let's slice 6" of hight out of the body" like a certain EMod "Fiero".
Not to mention that STU is a DOT tire class. You can make 500HP - can you use
it?
There's lots of room to sink big bucks into motors if you wanted to, but I think
that the law of diminishing returns kicks in fairly soon, especially when you
talk small-displacement turbo motors. A 600HP 2.0l motor is a phone call away,
but it'll have a turbo the size of my head, and lag you can measure with a
calendar - and when it spools, the power will come on with all the subtlty of a
sledgehammer.
On a road course, you can live with this, and the big power pays big dividends
on the straights. (Think Nissan GTS or GTU cars) On an autocross course, even a
National one, the distance between turns is so compressed that the tradeoffs you
need to make Big Power are much less attractive. Autocross Is Not Road Racing.
And as a certain Mr "I have the least amount of power in the group" Tak is
demonstrating this year, handling and finesse usually beats Big Power that lacks
either. Marcus's Beast or even my riceburner would reduce the Tak-chicken to
crunchy McNuggets on a road course, but autocrossing so far this season has been
a different story.
That's not to say that there _isn't_ a class-killer lurking out there
somewheres, and that's not to say that one of your examples isn't one of them.
But I'd rather service all the people who have STU-style cars and no place to
play now - and cross the "killer car" bridge when we come to it - than to deny
the intended STU audience a chance to go play at all.
DG
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