New Super Touring Philosophy

[Stan]

Coincidental that you should bring this up; I've actually been thinking the last week or so that it's more appropriate to have this date limit rule move forward with time, something along the lines of "current year plus 25 years).Yeah, it'll exclude cars eventually, but if the goal is to keep the category "fresh", it's needed.

Thanks for the rapid reply, Greg. There are plenty of places to race a '66 Mustang, so no surprise there.

I'm not sure I agree that the goal was ever to keep the category "fresh", though. I was on the CRB when BP and DP were approved, and my recollection is that 1985 was chosen simply as when EFI came into common use. We had no clue how popular the category would become, and thought no one would be interested in running an older car. Since there are no competition adjustments why not delete the "age limit' altogether? That way every IT car has a place in Nationals other than Prod or GT? After all, those categories don't seem to be suffering from allowing older cars.

[Chip42]

I don't claim to know the reason for the 1985+ plus rule, but I think that it, or better yet a moving range such as "30 model years prior to the current GCR calendar year" are essential to keep this category relevant.

the last thing the SCCA needs is another place to run a 50 year old car. In fact, I think ALL CLASSES in the GCR should consider something of the sort (not including SRF and other popular, 1-make classes), and that SCCA should start growing "the vintage program," if needed, to catch all of the stuff that falls out of the bottom of club racing. then maybe we'd pick up other vintage racers from the many vintage clubs out there, and run a new series (pro, club, vinatge, solo, rallycross, PDX). No one gets left out, we bring in more members, and the "club racing" side stays current, helping it to seem more palatable to "the kids." win-win-win.