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Originally Posted by conehead
The problem with the SCCA system is that a single mod, even one that gives no performance gain (like an oil cooler or a hood) can shoot you up several levels to a completely ridiculous class.
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I'd argue that those are not trivial mods with many cars, adding cooling capability can increase the ceiling for power generation by a significant amount and people will spend thousands upon thousands of dollars to shed 10-20 lbs like a hood does, again not to mention the cooling and potential aerodynamic effects benefits of vented hoods. "Simple Mods" are almost always based in significant performance gains, even if they're ebay knockoffs that offer no real advantage suddenly looking the other way or allowing a few exceptions basically destroys the classing system.
It goes back to your original point, of course optimized cars are the way to go, both as a competitor and as a rules writer, playing dumb is just setting yourself up for failure.
That's why locals should be nice and look the other way when they know that it's not going to be a big deal, like the guy who shows up with an aftermarket supercharger on his car and classes himself in a Street class but is still on OE wheels with 400TW all season tires, pretty sure nobody bothered that guy in my region, but he didn't come back, hopefully it's not because someone bothered him because that would be lame.
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where in SCCA you must start with the current hot model or its impossible to win. The 86 is unique in that it can actually compete in CS or DS but it still has no chance in either.
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Unless you're in a spec class you're always chasing rules changes and class rebalancing, I don't care if it's SCCA, NASA, USAC or the FIA, and even then new stuff comes out every once in awhile anyway (i.e. Spec Miata is ditching Bilstein's for Penske's soon).
STX is fun and not as expensive as people think, $2k coilovers, $1.3k for the first set of wheels and tires (Tirerack brand wheel $148/ea), $200 swaybar, $1k for a header and OFT and go. Those are list prices btw and when set up and driven well should be a trophy contender, race tires fit in the trunk of the car, still fun without header/tune imho if someone wants to build slow and have fun buy in the order listed.