The Philosophy of Super Touring...

[Greg Amy]

...but more specifically, that of STL.

And before we get started, I'd like to make clear that anything I say here is intended as constructive criticism. I'm really digging this new category and fully intend to be a part of it, so I want to see it successful.

Also, I want to re-iterate my thoughts on how to write a rule:
https://improvedtouring.com...ad.php?t=22779

In another topic, the following comments appeared:

Decide on your cornerstones and stick with them.

That [modification in STL] does make it inconsistent with what IT cars can do today.

So what truly is the philosophy of Super Touring? Without a clear core philosophy against which to judge changes, it is impossible to be consistent. The following is written in the "Purpose" section of the newly-proposed category rules:

"The intent of this category is to allow a level of preparation for cars similar to that of World Challenge cars."

That's it? World Challenge cars? So 'splain to me why we're removing the allowances for World Challenge VTS? And how does STL fit into that philosophy? Given I don't think there's a clear anwser for either of those points, I'd like to suggest that one of the first orders of business is to clearly voice a core philosophy for this category. Once that's written down (call it the category's "mission, vision, goals") then it makes all other decisions about the category and its classes that much easier.

I suggest - and this is purely an inference on my part - that the core philosophy was originally as stated, that it's a place for World Challenge cars. I heard rumors that the category was pushed over from the Pro side, that Pro wanted some place in Club for their cars to play. And I think that's a great idea! But I'm getting the feeling that Club did not have the technology and/or manpower to properly police such a varying set of rules (e.g., anyone here have experience with the 2001 WC rules?) so they wanted to re-develop the rules to coincide with the current WC rules. And that's fine by me, I just hope that the rules do not alienate existing STO/STU cars (e.g., I'm aware of at least one team whose WC-legal Hondas are not legal to the new STU rules due to JDM engines, compression, and "Frankenstein" builds.)

More thoughts to come.

GA