At the risk of appearing to...

Darin listed four choices for dealing with the Bimmer...
1) Leave the car as it is and watch the rest of ITS dwindle helplessly away due to lack of competitiveness...
2) Try to speed EVERYONE else up...
3) Adjust the classification weight of the car to be more appropriate to it's output...
4) Restrict the output to be more appropriate to the car's current weight...[/b]
He forgot one...declassifying the 325is. However, the CRB didn't want to do that without having somewhere else to classify the car. Choice number 1 was unacceptable to the CRB and number 2 isn't practical -- you can't turn a sow's ear into a silk purse, so the choices boiled down to numbers 3 and 4.

While one might challenge some of the constants used in the Process Equation, to call it "pseudo" is incorrect. The equation is based on solid engineering principles and is going a long way towards regularising IT classifications. Furthermore, the Process is subject to continuing refinements that promise to make it even more accurate. In any case, IMO it is infinitely superior to the method...or should I say, lack of method previously employed.

In the end the ITAC itself could not reach a clear concensus as to whether process weight or a restricter was preferable for the 325is, and tabled the decision for the CRB to make. After considerable discussion among the CRB member, two factors tipped the scales in the direction of the SIR. First, no front runner or engine prep shop would share current dyno numbers with the CRB from which to ascertain accurate hp numbers. Second, most competitors we talked to were already down at or near the 2850 minimum weight. So the decision hovered over whether to have guys adding 350-450 lbs of ballast to their cars (depending on whose hp numbers one believed), or if we should impose an SIR to ensure hp did not exceed the target value. In the end we picked an SIR, whose size was subsequently increased after testing was done on 3 different dynos.

Is it possible we erred? Certainly. Last I looked in the mirror I was still human, and presumably capable of error. Could we have chosen weight? Sure, and I believe we would have if we'd had good hp numbers from the outset.

But IMO the real answer is to create a nationally recognised IT class where the 325is and similarly high powered touring cars can run in their own class without artificial restrictions, which is where the ITR class comes in. The Adhoc Committe is nearly ready to send up a formal proposal to create that class. If the proposal goes through, the 325is and similar cars will at long last have a class of their own. I am excited by the concept and I think the competitors will be, as well.

Cheers!