Quote:
Originally posted by Knestis:
By this logic (applied to the window question only - I'll leave the others alone), IT entrants should remove ALL glass windows and replace them with polycarbonate. And showroom stock cars should do the same.
ANS
K, your "logic" never ceases to amaze me- I don't remember seeing too many race cars T-boned in their windshields or even their rear windows, but I 've seen quite a few hit perpendicularly and otherwise in their sides (where the rolled-down window resides). And windshields and rear glass must remain to serve a purpose, they shield the driver and enclose the car. Door windows rolled down in the door serve absolutely no purpose except added weight.
In more than twenty years of racing, I've never seen a showroom, or otherwise, driver cut by broken glass from a broken windshield or rear window, but I've seen plenty of broken glass on the track from sidewindows shattered on the pavement.
The only real reason GT uses polycarbonates is that it is lighter, not safer. _____
This is the same kind of rationale that got GT cars to where they are now, from the "Sedan" classes of the '70s. Yes, it is a little arbitrary to define where IT ends and Production starts but it does not make big-picture sense to be making constant incremental allowances in the rules. Not even if they are based on "safety," in as much as "unsafe" conditions are accepted in ANY club racing class.
ANS:
This is about as weak an argument as it gets: "Lets not be safer because we might be incrementing."
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Fuel cells are not required in IT but are in other categories. Arm restraints are required in formula cars and sports racers but not IT. Where do we draw the line?
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ANS:
Most IT cars are sedans or otherwise enclosed, arm restraints would be superfluous. Fuel cells are less necessary because IT cars go considerably slower than GT, formula, and Production.
And I will argue strongly that the ONLY cost-free modification is the one that is NOT allowed. Time is money or time not spent doing something else.
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ANS: Sounds like you really don't have time to race.
K, you are making excuses not good sense. This is exactly what I mean about people not wanting to go to the trouble to make good decisions, and these really are the weakest arguments I ve heard you present.
Here's another "illogical" one for you to wrestle with: If we took the bumpers off there would be fewer metal-to-metals for obvious reasons.
G. Robert Jones
K