ITS e36 BMW

[Chip42]

Y'all will no doubt recognize that I don't have a lot of confidence that we ever truly know what think we know...

Noted. I agree that the "top" is usually unknown, but the average can be determined. if the "fast cars" are known, with confidence, to be making AT LEAST some gain greater that 25%, then reprocessing is "correct". Jeff's proposal is interesting in that it seeks to reset ITS based on these cars' current weight, their known gain, and a new weight factor to make the math work.

likely truths:
1) the ACTUAL gain of the top runners will remain cloaked in secrecy, so will liekly still be a few ticks above "what we know" and maintain the advantage of development.
1b) newly developed cars which exceed their expected gain will need to be tracked dilligently, and the understanding of adjustment should be made clear to soften the "lead trophy" feelings.

2) the power to weight gap to ITR will shrink, likely forcing more of these changes to reset R in relation to S. guys who can't drop ballast will be unamused (RX8, celica). I think the gap back to A will be fine, and on track it will remian unchanged (top cars stay at current weight).

3)it will change the tweener car status for the top half of IT. cars that become too light in ITR might be sent to ITS "heavy" assuming gain potentials in the 25% range are real peaks. guys who built cars to run in a certain group will most likely NOT want this.

4) we still will not have addressed the looming realities of modern stock drivetrains: sequential transmissions, diesels, direct injection gas engines, turbos, and combinations of these, which could force FURTHER adjustments to IT's weight and classing structure in order to stay relevant. we have ~3-5 years before this becomes a REAL problem.