A couple points....

On the ITA thing...first, "not quite there yet"....do you really think that a car that is extremely popular, and has had many large firms spend time and money developing, could be developed THAT much further? TWO seconds is a LOT of time at the sharp end of a cars development edge. ZThe 7 has been around for 20 years, and firms like Racing Beat, ISC, G-Force Engineering, Mazdatrix have spent buckets of time and money...

When you put the best of the best against the best of the best, on real tracks, it just can't keep up. Period. THere ARE a few guys who can, on certain tracks, but as is stands right now, it is NOT a contender in ITA, like the CRX, the Integra, the 240SX are, and the Miata 1.6 (and soon the 1.8), the SER, the NX2000, and the Neon will prove to be.

If I read you correctly, the difference you attribute to the prep mods required to run fast in EP vs GP is $5000. thats a bunch of money, and there is significant development that goes with the allowance to port a rotary. You either have to know what to do, or figure it out. The more variables you roll into the equation, the more time is spent on engineering.

I won't pretend to know the specifics of whether the car is a good fit with an IT motor in G or Ff or wherever, but I can see some logic in doing less work and spending less money, but going a little slower.

On the other hand, it does blur the line between Prod and IT, in an attempt to help Prods numbers. maybe at the expense of IT, and i'm not sure thats entirely healthy. I would prefer fresh conquests.