I really like that people are talking and thinking about this.

At the risk of contradicting myself though, another thing that has been appealing about STL has been the large fields. I realize most are "fillers", but I kinda like having fillers. That means if you build or are building an actual STL car, you will have cars to race with while you develop your car since the field fillers tend to run the gamut from not particularly fast (for the class) to pretty darn fast for the class. I do think, however, that no "filler" car should, given comparable drivers, be able to beat a fully prepped STL car. I think SMs are a great choice for fillers because they do seem to turn times that require a good STL car with a good driver to beat, but likely can't really compete against a full tilt STL car.

The thing is, since a "filler" car is a specific exception to the rules, I don't think it has to meet the criteria for the class. Which is to say, just because you allow SMs as fillers, I don't think you have to make Miatas fit in STL. Conversely, if you don't allow Miatas in STL (by seats or volume or whatever), that does not mean you can't allow SMs as fillers. (or IT cars or anything else)

For the record, I know all of this is really difficult and I really appreciate the folks who take this on and I think they are doing and have done a great job. I am looking forward to getting my car on track and proving once again that the car is the least of my problems.

Rory