What is a "touring car?"

[Matt93SE]

I wouldn't be so pessimistic about STU's future. Sure the majors participation isn't as high as it had been in the past, but we're already at 11 STU cars signed up and I'm sure there's at least a half dozen that'll come from the local regions through the divisional route. We've been ahead of AS, GT1, T3, and T4. In fact this may be the largest the STU field to date.

As for roles, I see STU as more of the current GTS and less of the TC of old. Maybe that's the solution to the STL dilemma, banish the DD Miatas to STU, and remove the rotary's to only the chassis that they came with, which can be regulated back to parity.

I'm not using Runoffs entries as the measuring stick- there's too many variables over who makes it each year, and IMO isn't a true look at the health of the class. Take a look at overall class participation nationwide- we're in the bottom few classes. Any idea how the 'regional' race entries stack up?
Also there's a bit of weirdness in the participation numbers.. there are only 22 "participants" listed for the Mid-states majors races, yet if you look at the point standings, there's 39 finishers. maybe those include out of conferences races... ???

Also keep in mind that runoffs registration has only been open a few days. I know of 3 people from around here that are planning to go that aren't on the list- if they don't sell the cars first. Runoffs registrations 4 days into things shouldn't be a go-by for much of anything.

I also think its worth noting that the type of tuner the class was expected to attract is largely not already within the scca fold, and we both didn't do a good Job as an organization to attract them, and filled the class with "wrong looking" cars (miatas) that detract from the appeal of a hot hatch class to hot hatch people.

Racing a 240SX here.. Can't tell you how many times I get the "What's the drift car doing Club Racing?" jokes. (especially when it rains and the no-electronics-nannies RWD car starts getting more tail happy than usual)..
most of the world running them didn't want to touch the class because the SR20DET wasn't legal. With its homologation, they chokes down the inlet restrictor -2mm less than any of the other turbo cars.. Since I don't have the budget to do a full-on engine build and "prove" it can't make the power before asking, I'm not even going to waste my time to spend money I don't have and still get out-powered by a Solstice for another year....

so yeah.. I feel your pain when you talk about pissing off the 'tuners'.....