Hey Rob,

I did e-mail Noam and he told me some of his set up, if I decided to go that way. I also talked to a Tom Bell, inventor of the Swing Set Carrier Roll bar. He races his 2.8 in BMWCCA J-Stock and his son is using a 1.9'er for DE's. I've also talked to many at our autoX about it. The consensis, and I'd tend to agree, is that I need to sort out my driving first. In this way I'm probably better off running a second hand car, like an ITA Miata, that has a successful history for the first season or two. Once I find my abilities then I can move on and build a unique car. I like the Z3 but I think you're right it needs less weight to really be competitive. I was told by Tom Bell that the rear e-30 type trailing arms and the short wheel base disadvantage his car compaired to the other e-36 varients in J stock. I was curious if this holds for the other shorter cars (like the Miata for example) in ITA. It may be a regional thing too, as I'll be running "The Fastest Asphalt In The West" I really appreciate your reply, it's given me hope that the Z3 may be reclassed in the near future. BTW, I also talked to TC-Kline about finding one of their former SSB cars, but I guess they've all found good homes and I don't see any of them for sale. I thought I'd pick up a rough streeter for about 5k this winter as the base for a new racer, as that seems the only route given no Z3 racers for sale. But now I'm leaning toward a used Miata racer.

James