February Fastrack

[shwah]

2. - wheel sizes: the ITC VW beetle is the most discussed of the new breed of small cars with big wheels. find a >15" diameter x6" wheel. currently, going smaller is not allowed, so such cars would be stuck with rare/custom ($$$$) or stock (###) and also have to run larger ($$$) tires than much of their competition. obviously, this is more true for ITB/C. in all classes, the ability to pick wheel sizes is "cheap gearing". again - it can go sideways here, like anywhere else, if someone is willing to throw down the moolah. so it goes in racing. I say open it up.

and on EP - Greg Ira wrote in requesting a re-weigh and the response is "no, but we'll adjust this stuff instead..." I laughed for about 5 minutes before I could get to reading the list. -50# to a bunch of stuff.

Funny, because you can't fit a smaller than 15 on a New Beetle.

[Chip42]

Funny, because you can't fit a smaller than 15 on a New Beetle.

but you can find 15x6 wheels more readily than you can 16x6, and tires are cheaper there too. VW also runs a slightly less common lug pattern so the wheel options are further reduced for THAT car.

point is, allow whatever diameter wheel a competitor wants. what's the harm / clash with the philosophy?

[Greg Amy]

point is, allow whatever diameter wheel a competitor wants. what's the harm / clash with the philosophy?

None, really, other than a somewhat-reasonable attempt to limit costs*. But if the real demand is to allow smaller-than-stock wheels, I'd suggest simply removing the line that states "Cars may not fit wheel diameters smaller than those listed on their spec line."

In the end, if someone wants to add 5-15 pounds of unsprung weight per corner (for both tire and wheel) to be able to run 17" wheels on a Rabbit...hell, let 'em self-cull the competitive herd.

GA

* I hear ya, Prof. I know, I know...

[shwah]

but you can find 15x6 wheels more readily than you can 16x6, and tires are cheaper there too. VW also runs a slightly less common lug pattern so the wheel options are further reduced for THAT car.

point is, allow whatever diameter wheel a competitor wants. what's the harm / clash with the philosophy?

Whoops. I thought the NB had the same 15x6 minimum stock size as the Golf and Jetta share it's chassis. My mistake.