I like the general spec IT idea. I think it would be a good idea to have the same cars that run in IT also classed in spec IT. The primary reason being for this is to give a person another step after spec IT. A person could build the car for spec IT (cheaply!), then after a while they may want to do more with it. At this point they can use the same car, just build it up more. By having the cars in both categories, it would most likely keep people from creatively spending money in Oh, don’t leave shocks open. There is a ton of money to be spent in this area and would quickly defeat the purpose of this class. Showroom stock doesn’t allow different suspension systems and they do just fine.

I didn’t replace my very old suspension on my Prelude until after the licensing school – by that point it has over 190K miles on the car with the original suspension. I only mention this to eliminate the whole “but showroom stock cars are much newer and their suspension doesn’t have a ton of miles on them” excuse. Sway bars open, maybe.

No claim rule. I can just picture it now - all of those silly VW, Mazda and Audi guys would quickly be claiming the Hondas. And who could blame them? My real reason for this is that I know my Prelude well, and have a bunch of spare parts for it. When I pop open the hood on my VW (don’t worry, its only a winter beater J ), it looks very, very different.

I am not in favor of let anyone out and race on the track. My first time racing was very intimidating. And that was after doing several HPDEs, feeling very comfortable on the track, and being one of the faster guys out there. When I got out on the track, ummm, wow – this is different! If that were one of my first experiences on the track, I would have quickly said that this just isn’t for me.

Hopefully SCCA will really promote the whole high performance driving program. I like how NASA integrates their HPDE & races. Yes, maybe the participation numbers allow this better right now for NASA. So, maybe we just allow the advanced group to have a session during the race weekend. In the NER (and I’m sure many other regions too), we have a few national classes run with our regional races. Make the national guys run the national races, which would allow room for some HPDE run groups.