ba-autox
[Top] [All Lists]

Re: Stock Classes (was: Cheap Gas)

To: "Mark J. Andy" <marka@telerama.com>
Subject: Re: Stock Classes (was: Cheap Gas)
From: Kevin Stevens <Kevin_Stevens@pursued-with.net>
Date: Mon, 9 Jul 2001 15:33:00 -0700 (PDT)
On Mon, 9 Jul 2001, Mark J. Andy wrote:

> You could look at it that way.  Most folks seem to look at it like "its
> not worth spending $20k on shocks because Billy Bob will just take 'em for
> $2k and I'll be out $18k".  Oh, and all the fast guys will no longer be on
> mondo expensive shocks anyway, so the motivation to use 'em will dry up as
> well.

Shocks aren't $20K, of course.  I don't agree that none of the fast guys
will be on them, I'd think at the National level most guys still would be
- at that level car improvements DO make a difference.  Another problem I
have with this plan is that I don't think it's right for someone like Mark
Daddio, who I understand uses a fairly reasonably priced set of sport
shocks but has had them revalved and tuned many times to great expense, to
lose his labor investment and tuning advantage to anyone who comes along
with a credit card.

Another issue is availability.  I ran JRZ single adjustable shocks, at way
too much #@$%#^ money, on my C5 because they were the only aftermarket
shocks available at the time (well, Penskes were too, take your pick).
Were they worth it?  No, I'd have been as well off with a set of Konis.
Was I willing to then lose them to a claim?  No way in hell.

> Ok, I talked about all this in previous messages that you must have not
> read very throughly because you're knee was jerking all around... :-)

Please send me offline the relevant messages, I may have missed them.  I
saw a short reference to Divisionals and above, and nothing about
administration.

> Claiming at a regional level would be completely silly.  At a minimum it
> should be Divisionals and higher, maybe even Pro/Tour & higher.

But I don't think you'd see any support for this at the Tour level.
Everyone there is spending so much money on tires and travel that shocks
are a minor one-time investment.  You want expense, talk to the F-stock
guys going through 6 or 8 factory LSDs in a season!

> In addition, there's absolutely no reason that you couldn't write the
> claim rule so that the claimer was responsible for supplying a working set
> of shocks/struts so that the vehicle could get home, etc.  Similarly, you
> get the shocks/struts at the end of the event.

> The cost to claim the shocks/struts and the knowledge that they'll
> disapear at the next event (and the associated hassle).
> > Do we have people scheming to pilfer them just before the big events?
> > What happens if more than one person wants them?  How do you prevent
> > me from sabotaging them before I deliver them?
>
> You likely have all those issues.  Usually its either first come first
> serve or names in a hat when multiple people want 'em.

I dunno, that flapping noise I just heard sounds a lot like a stack of
cards collapsing.  ;)

> Please don't get me wrong.  I'm in favor of leaving the shock rules the
> hell alone.  But if you wanna change something, don't dick around with
> requiring OE shocks or only one phillips screw adjuster.  If you want to
> limit cost, the only way I've ever seen it work is with claiming rules.
>
> Mark

I can see claiming rules for low-maintenance policing of spec classes.  I
think the paradigm slips badly when applied to Stock class autox rules.

KeS

<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>