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Quote:

I'd rather have stricter rules that get loosened, vice the other way around. Best way to scare off competitors is to constantly strangle out purpose built cars that disenfranchised your intended participant crowd in the first place.



You lost me.

Could you clarify?



Sure thing. The ruleset that I drafted and proposed was very similar to SM, however it catered to cars with a more resto-mod build in mind to compete rather than an all out pro-touring build. The intent was that a guy could spend 4-5k on a car to "prep" it, and be competitive. Suspension was limited to bolt on kits using factory suspension pick-up points. Engine blocks were restricted to the same alloy as manufactured, no fire wall modifications, etc. For the folks with coil over conversions, aftermarket subframes, and LS swaps, SCCA has classes for those(EP,XP,CP). And as I like to put it bluntly, if you can afford 15k in suspension, you can afford 1500 in tires and run with the big boys.
This method was widely agreed on in our region because out of the 6-8 regulars and 12 or so that come occasionally, it only really banned a couple of the higher end cars, and many of the guys who have been becoming tired of the rule sets at Good Guys wanted a place to be competitive....everyone wants a chance at a trophy, lol.
Good Guys finally had a rude awakening this year with the final shootout. An XP Lotus showed up, passed tech and was allowed to run Qual day. The following day of the shootout, he was "re-tech'd" and found illegal. At the pace he was running, he would have definitely been a top 3. What I'm getting at is Good Guys is becoming atomic warfare for cars. Big money cars are starting to show up in force and it is ruining a bit of the spirit of the event for competitors.
My fear with this current SCCA ruleset is that with the liberal rules now, people will invest a lot of money and man hours to build a car that is competitive in that liberal class. The big money builds will come out and the little guys (80% of the class' intended participants)will sulk away. Once the rules start to tighten year after year, it will be harder for the "purpose" built guys to forcast the class and they will go back to run what ya brung type events. The class will wither and die. Here in San Diego Region(SDR) we just voted this year that there will be only CAM1, and it will be 1978 and older. This will eliminate Fox bodies and the newer American Muscle guys in SM and ESP who were frothing at the mouth because they are not as competitive in their classes and feel they could clean up for easy trophies and a jacket in CAM.
All in all, I spent a lot of time making a ruleset for a class I was not going to compete in(I'll be in SM so I have no actual skin in the game), and I wanted it accessible(and winnable) to the nut and bolt/garage guys. They said my baby was ugly and now we'll just have to see how this ruleset pans out. I'll be doing my best to keep cranking out customer cars and herding them in that direction, at a couple events this year we had 4 customer cars out battling each other, and it was great to watch!