I'm afraid that the tide of opinion has well and truly turned in the last few weeks. We conservative rules literalists - Rules NERDs - are pretty much extinct. Our propositions seem no longer valid in the current context - that (1) the framers of the IT rules would have expressly included allowances had they wanted them included (typically inaccurately invoked in arguments as "intent"), that (2), the letter of the rule trumps interpretation of the rule, and (3) that changes in technology or other influences should be allowed to influence the rules, their interpretation, and enforcement thereof only grudgingly.

These realizations have been growing out of a couple of things that my equally endangered Neanderthal NERD buddy Greg A. hinted at recently, that were bouncing around in my head yesterday as we got the shop ready for the shell to come back from the painter:

First, the emerging T3/T4 cars represent the "New IT." Yeah, the lifespan rule makes initial purchases more expensive and we all have some idea of what it takes to build (or cheat up) a "stock" drivetrain but philosophically, the idea of bolting some suspension pieces on a car is where IT started, even if most current drivers can conceive of that only in abstract terms typically reserved for telegraph communication, steam locomotives, and the War of Northern Agression.*

Second, "you don't want" guys like Greg building IT cars applying the loosey-goosey interpretations that so many seem to have such fun with. Convince him to come to the Dark Side and you won't know creep until y'all done got creeped, big-time. The post hoc allowance of changes is only going to encourage clever, liberal-thinking, interpretationists, and the cat seems utterly out of that bag at this point.

It's ironic that most IT guys/gals will tell you, without recognizing the irony, that Production is out of control. This, even as most of them seem all too willing to tear - well, creep - along in exactly the same direction with their category. At this point, I have little choice but to concede that this dynamic is an inevitable function of our culture and that the only solution is to ride a category along as it evolves, until it turns into something one no longer wants to do. It's now 2006:

** The small GT classes are on life support
** Production is where the GT (Sedan) was in 1980
** IT is where Production was in 1975
** Touring is where IT was in 1985

The constipation that plagued the IT rules for a couple of decades has been cured but a couple of codified creeps in the last FasTrack have convinced me that, along with relief from our discomfort, we can't avoid a big, smelly pile of poop.

I'm officially old. I'm losing enthusiasm for fighting to keep people from helping to make a mistake that they collectively just have to make. You all think I'm a crotchety old bahstahd for suggesting that a spot weld holding a spherical bearing in an A arm spells doom for the category. You don't get it, you won't get it, I can't help you get it, and sadly - ONCE YOU DO GET IT - it will be too late. If you stay in this category long enough, each of you will reach a tipping point where all of a sudden, you don't recognize the cars you are racing against.

You will want to become a rules NERD, and you may. Because I'm turning in my card.

K

* I've been in North Carolina for a while now