On Fri, 7 Jul 2000 02:22:49 EDT, TeamZ3@aol.com wrote:
> Funny, I was thinking just the opposite. Stock competitiveness typically
> boils down to one thing; the "haves" and "have nots". Those that have
race
> alignment capability and those that don't. How competitive would a Neon
be
> if it has only 1 degree of negative camber instead of 3+ degrees? My
opinion
> is that we take too much of a primadonna attitude towards keeping Stock
pure
> and innocent, which it hardly is. You can't expect to take the gamet of
> automobiles, of which each manufacturer has their own agenda and
priorities,
> and have parity. Your either going to have few classes comprised of many
> dogs or too many classes to even comprehend like the NCCC.
>
> I wouldn't mind giving up all the Stock allowances, except that IMO we
should
> open up the alignment allowance to achieve any caster & camber setting
deemed
> prudent by the competitor. Pure Stock is a noble idea that has never
panned
> out, and never will. SCCA Racing finally had to come to grips with this,
but
> now they have themselves right back into another unmanagable stew playing
the
> Trunk Package game. Just give them the alignment capability and then let
> them fall in where they will.
>
> M Sipe
>
I couldn't agree more with this thought. Stock class already isn't very
stock and those who are competitive nationally and win nationally already
spend a LOT of money on the car, so trying to keep things cheap and "stock"
is slightly unrealistic.
Let's say you have two very similar cars in HP, weight, drivetrain, car A
and car B. If car A has a camber range from the factory of 0-1 degree, and
car B has a camber range of 0-3, and car B ends up dominating because of the
camber help, then the owners of car A would obviously want either their car
or car B put in a different class because they can't match the competitive
level of car B. Now, if we allow ALL cars whatever alignment they see fit,
then car A can now keep up with car B and no reclassification is necessary
and there are less complaints etc.
There will be more parity within each class and many more types of cars in
each class if EVERYONE is allowed to do what they want with alignment (and
maybe a few small other things). People complain about one car's advantage
over another due to coming equipped with item A, but guess what, if all cars
are allowed to be equipped with item A, then it ceases to be an advantage,
you create more parity, and don't have to reclass everything as often and
you don't have to have too many different classes. Besides alignment, I
think little things like visors, rear view mirrors, pedal covers, and shift
knobs (you know, all of those things that we've debated over quite a bit
recently) should also be "open" items. Do what you want with those things.
When everyone can do it, no one can complain that they have a disadvantage
due to any one of the above.
Yes its a slippery slope, where do you stop, blah blah blah, but it's rather
obvious where we stop. The things that are obvious are the things that
frequently get brought up in this forum, like those items I mentioned above.
I don't want to stock to turn into some class where the cars are barely
stock, but I think that debated comfort and convenience items, alignment,
major wear items (shocks, exhaust...) should be free to change. None of
these things is that expensive, at least no more so than it already is, and
it will allow everyone one to make the changes so they won't have any reason
to complain that their car didn't come factory equipped with the best racing
style parts but some other car did (can I stress this idea enough?).
I know that this is not the politically correct opinion in SOLOII circles,
and people won't like me for saying it, but so what. It's obvious that
there is need for some change and I won't just sit like an old man, pound my
fist and support the status quo just because its the status quo. "We didn't
have no fancy pants stock class rules in my day. That's just the way it was
and we liked it!" ;) Time changes, cars change, and so should we.
-------------------
Mike Lamfalusi
'97 VW Jetta GLX
GS - Chicago Region
> rex_tener@yahoo.com writes:
>
> << That is an interesting thought. Now that the SEB is willing to start
with
> a clean sheet of paper for all the stock classifications, maybe it is
time
> to take away some of the "antique" stock allowances.
>
> Eliminate 13.4 wheel allowance.
>
> Eliminate 13.7 front sway bar allowance.
>
> Eliminate 13.8 suspension crash bolts.
>
> Discuss amongst yourselves. >>
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