> Okay, consider this -- if your Miata was used only for autocrossing,
> would you remove the sun visors? If so, why?
Hmm, that is a good way to think about it.
Frankly, I'm not sure it would have ever occured to me if I never drove it
on the street, as I really don't think it gets in the way of where I look
to drive an autox course. Actually, that may not entirely true--I got the
idea to pull it from reading miata.net web pages or forum or some such
(it's a common Miata "adjustment" for tallish drivers) so the idea
probably would have at least _occured_ to me.
So, if it was autox only? I would probably leave it in, for the following
reasons:
a) The visor is really only an issue driving on city streets with lots of
stop lights--that's where the visor gets in the way the most. I can't say
for sure, because I first noticed the inconvenience on the street, but I
really don't think I would notice the difference on the track.
b) Even if I thought I would prefer to autox without it, I would probably
leave it in--if it's an autox only vehicle, I would have no "daily
driver/C&C" justification for removing it, and so would probably choose
not to since it is not specifically allowed.
> [I recognize that the danger of going down this path is that
> especially in Stock, most of the cars are not only for autocrossing.
> But the rules must be tailored to the national level, with looser
> enforcement at the regional level, so I submit that it makes sense to
> consider it this way.]
Agreed.
I do think the ability to race your daily driver is a vital and integral
part of stock class autoxing, and that the C&C allowances are vital to the
health of stock class competition at all levels. So, we need to be careful
about outlawing anything that makes it hard or Joe or Jane Average to race
the daily driver.
However, I'm all for cost-containment and fairly strict limits on stock
class mods, so if it really is percieved as a performance advantage not
freely available to everyone (see below), I'd rather outlaw removing
visors.
>
> I'll also bring up the age-old argument that if you make it legal to
> remove visors or mirrors, then everyone will have to do so in order to
> remain competitive.
>
This is part of the reason I'd be shaky on mirrors---it would clearly cost
something to re-position them, and thus would make me a bit nervous about
allowing it.
Is that true for sun-visors though? Do they all just pull out to remove,
push back in to replace as on a Miata? I have no idea (Quick! Everyone to
your cars--grab those visors, pull hard and twist, and then report back!).
If so, it's a spare-tire type thing--freely available to everyone,
performance advantage or no (I know, I know--if it's that easy, just put
it back in for competition and shut up--and that's fine--I'm happy to do
it if the rule is that they must be in, but for me it is a
comfort/convenience item that I'd prefer not to have to mess with at each
event).
Tom
|