What is a "touring car?"

[Andy Bettencourt]

We can revisit how the Miata (et al.) found its way into STL if you want but it wasn't by design.



K

Sure it was. It's a power to weight class based on engine volume. That door is wide open for any chassis newer than the designated year in the rules. The tweaks toward equity in a National class are always ongoing but let's not pretend the Miata somehow snuck in the back door to this party. The invitee list has been clear since inception and there has been no change since the original GCR version that has magically allowed 'sports cars'.

[Matt93SE]

Asking about a first principle of a class is certainly not "picking nits." I think maybe you don't know what that term means.

K

Sure it was. It's a power to weight class based on engine volume. That door is wide open for any chassis newer than the designated year in the rules. The tweaks toward equity in a National class are always ongoing but let's not pretend the Miata somehow snuck in the back door to this party. The invitee list has been clear since inception and there has been no change since the original GCR version that has magically allowed 'sports cars'.

This. Remember that whole disclaimer about 'competitiveness not guaranteed' ?? Well now people are whining Because Miata and you're trying to make the other chassis more competitive.. The door's been open to 'any car after 1985' since the inception of both STU and STL, so trying to decide now that you didn't want 'sports cars' to be included is picking nits to me..

Yeah.. let's kick the running back off the football team because he's too fast and none of the kids on defense can catch him! Then trophies for all!!

[Greg Amy]

Remember that whole disclaimer about 'competitiveness not guaranteed' ??

Know how I know you've not been involved in Nationals/Majors racing...?

[Matt93SE]

Know how I know you've not been involved in Nationals/Majors racing...?

Don't go there. That colossal cluster**** is completely unrelated to this. :P

[Knestis]

I stand corrected re: inclusion of 2-seaters in the initial design of STL. I may be confusing the explanations I've heard, between that and the allowance for rotaries. That's a bad thing, too, I think - but it's a different conversation. It would still be interesting to see what Keane et al. ENVISIONED when they penned the first rule set, though. I'd love to ask him. Was it an oversight, allowed, or intended?

K

[JeffYoung]

I ask this because I truly don't know.

What evidence is there that Miatas dominant STL (other than easy crossover and a few top SM guys not surprisingly run up front in STL)?

What data supports the %age weight adder for rear wheel drive STL cars?

[Greg Amy]

- We put data acq boxes in many front-running cars during the Majors season and at the Runoffs;
- Experienced observations;
- Race results.

Majors classifications are held to a different standard than Improved Touring; while we may start with hard numbers and a general formula, it's a guideline; we are not beholden to it. The CRB's goal is to ensure reasonably equitable competition among a wide breadth of participants within any Majors class. If something sticks out, it gets whacked; if something is seriously being prepared and driven and it sucks, it gets a break.

Read my sig. And think about the above paragraph next time you want to go National/Majors racing with Improved Touring.

Now read my sig again.

GA

[Greg Amy]

...let's not pretend the Miata somehow snuck in the back door to this party.

Concur, it was always invited to the party. However, in our ongoing - and decisively not yet resolved - quest to enable parity between FWD and RWD cars, we've consistently increased the RWD adder from (I think?) 2%, to 3.5%, to today's 5.5%. And, of course, IMO we're not there yet (I think it needs to be 7.5% minimum).

However, it is only recently that we're finally realizing that one reason we're not there yet is not necessarily FWD vs. RWD; in fact, it's becoming more apparent that there's additional characteristics beyond RWD that make them a better package. It is because of this recent realization that we're now discussing implementation of an additional characteristic, one that does a better job of taking into account "better than the sum of its parts". The Miata is just one clear, obvious, and numerically advantageous illustration of that concept. Other examples include the Honda S2000, Acura NSX, etc.

In other words: "sports cars".

So the questions at hand are...do "sports cars" actually exist, do they have a performance advantage over "non sports cars", and if so how - or if - should they be appropriately classified?

GA