Greg, keep in mind that it was after the turn of the century that things went off the rails as SCCA Pro decided it wanted a diversity of cars in the fields and also started courting the manufacturers (i.e. certain black 4 door sedans that everyone at the time decried allowing in with the allowed mods). To equalize the field some, they picked a benchmark car and allowed everyone else to either mod the h3ll out of their pigs ear or artificially slowdown their gazelle to equalize the cars. That is why some cars like mine have a bunch of mods that don't fit within the spirit of STU any longer.

I also think that the growth of the Touring class has to do with the general lack of free discretionary income and available sponsor $$$$. For example, look at the rapid growth of B-Spec. Every Pro Sedan Series and sanctioning body will have a class soon for those cars. Cheap and easy to build and still mostly street legal in a pinch.

Eric