Scott Meyers <solo2@uswest.net> wrote:
> Stock - Pure Stock. Eliminate all modifications currently allowed. Class
> accordingly.
Two great big killer-nasty problems here, and two minor ones.
1) As I mentioned in a post yesterday, the thing the Membership most wants
out of a classing scheme is "fairness", which I define as "give my a class
where my 1973 Humpmobile has a reasonable chance at winning". When you
remove preparation allowences, then you further stratify cars based on how
the OEM equipped them - which means in order to keep "fairness" constant,
you need more classes.
2) A given number of parts on cars are wear items. Mufflers rust out.
Shocks leak and die. Brake pads wear down. It is unreasonable to expect
that common wear items be replaced with exact OEM replacement parts (price,
availability), and even if you feel like being unreasonable, policing those
parts becomes a serious problem.
A lot of Stock people grumble about how much some people spend on shocks,
and reducing shock costs seems to be a common goal with a group of people.
But do you really want to bounce the guy that swapped on $50 Monroe
Sense-o-Matics when his stock shocks died?
a) While banning (what may appear to be) hyper-expensive parts may seem
like a good way to keep costs down, it usually doesn't work that way.
Require Joe Stock-Class (who spends $1000 on shocks) to run OEM shocks, and
he'll buy 10 sets of OEM shocks, and pay to have them dynoed - for a net
cost higher than those super shocks - and he still winds up with better
shocks than Freddy No-Money.
b) Before you upset the status-quo applecart, consider who benefits. Is it
really going to make the sport any better for all the pain you put people
through?
My personal feelings are that the current Stock class preparation levels
are almost perfect as they sit. The _only_ thing I would like to see
changed is some way to allow non-performance-improving, reliability issues
to be addressed. Specifically, Neon motor mounts, Miata sway bar mounts,
and that Porsche timing chain. To me, to force people to keep breaking the
same part over and over again so the car can be kept "stock" is lunacy,
especially when the part in question cannot be exploited for more
performance.
> Street Mod - Or whatever these are called at this time; about three to
> six different classes to start. HERE is where the street modifications
> belong, not in "stock". Here is where all the otherwise uncompetitive
> stock cars can go and play. The allowed modifications would permit these
> cars to be more competitive.
It is true that allowing more mods makes more cars more competitive, and
it's also true that because of this, you need less classes to maintain a
constant "fairness" within the class. As I see it, so far, we only need 2
SM classes: SM "classic" and "Not-SM-classic" to be fair to everybody.
Strangely enough, while I have repeatedly expressed my favour for a new SM
class open to all cars not currently allowed in SM, and my desire to see
that class created, I haven't met anybody yet willing to take point and
spearhead that initiative. And I ain't gonna do that myself, as I have my
hands quite full, thank you. So it looks like we keep on with just "SM
classic" until a "Not-SM-Classic" driver overcomes their apathy and signs
up for the job.
DG
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