What is a "touring car?"

[Matt93SE]

If the concept is "Make the Mazdas win ALL teh classeses!!!11!!" then it sounds like they're doing a bang-up job... but it sounds like that can't even be agreed upon..

[Chip42]

the concept isn't "make the miatas win" nor "make the mazdas win". the issue is that everythign has been distilled to a power/weight and prep level NOT a classification based on other sorts of factors like "sedan" or "roadster" or "touring car" and as such, the light, small, low power miata fits nicely pretty much everywhere and (at the current level of development knowledge) is beter than pretty much everything else under the general criteria. Given the criteria are all pretty much just general (objective) and not car specific, becasue we wanted that (the process, power to weight, etc...) we wind up with a set of rules that miatas excel within.

the fact that mazda in general is very supportive of racers and the miata in particular is so increadibly well developed just makes the problem "worse" in that it encourages participation in more classes (more winners getting contingencies) and significantly flattens the learnign curve so that winning comes quickly.

Large pool of cars, relatively easy to come to grips with a new class, massive development already done, manufacturer support, great package overall - keeping the miatas away from a class looks like more of a loosing proposition than keeping the rules such that they (and simillar cars) are excluded. on paper, anyway. And when miatas are allowed in, the numbers in the class tend to swell, at first. The longer term effects are harder to measure, but among them are the droves of people who have packed it up and called it quits in a world where their investment or interest in a class got overshadowed by the miata juggernaut.

The one category that the miata seems like a perfect fit for is prod (you know, cuz its a roadster and stuff) and it's NOT the class killer there that it is everywhere else. it IS a very good, strong car in FP and decent in EP, but not a class killer. Interestingly, in prod, cars are balanced subjectively based on their individual performance merits...

[Matt93SE]

Well the issue I see is that the STAC seems to be corking everything else down (SR20DET and turbos in general ) while opening the rotaries up.. So from the non-Miata driver's view, it sure looks like there's something going on..

....Why do you think I bought meself an RX7 to play in EP???

[Andy Bettencourt]

If you think STL-TC can actually survive, then freaking make it happen. Just don't close the playing field for 90% of the entries, make them STL-SC. Ya I know, a class for everyone...except the SC version has entries. Maybe the TC version will get flooded with ITA/ITB field fillers, who knows?

I hate the fact that a franken-NSX is being even mentioned as the pinnacle when nobody have even built one yet...and if the mere CONCEPT of it is scaring people off, then the rules makes for this class have really screwed the pooch.