In racing, all's fair within the series' rules. If you don't like what others do within the rule structure, perhaps that's a sign you need to go to a cheaper series.

 

[QUOTE=Chris S,Jun 25 2009, 07:19 AM] Or Lotuses w/ Toyota engines?

Ariel Atoms w/ Honda or GM engines?

Maseratis w/ Ferrari engines?

McLaren F1 w/ Mercedes engine?

 

Ladies and gentleman I present to you everything that is wrong with the racing world. (I should point out that this post is serious, while the above posts have been somewhat in jest)

I think there is a fine line between being clever & pushing the limits of what is not written in the rules, and rules being changed to accommodate a manufacturer.

In the past, the rules were set so that a car had to be raced as a modified version of the production car. You could only move the suspension pickup points 20mm in any direction. This was to allow the engineers to work out any unwanted anti dive or other such geometry, but ultimately you ended up with suspension that was the same arrangement as the production car but with better hardware.

The rules were changed (many believe that they were changed to allow the BMWs to enter the series for marketing purposes) in the sense that the chassis pickup points are no longer mentioned in the rules, and the determining point is now the number of pickup points on the upright.

Whatever the factory upright has, the racing version has to retain the same number. While that means nothing to any of the other cars in the series, it does have a tremendous positive impact on the BMW because the production M3 has an extra control arm that mounts to the front strut suspension, thus 2 pickup points on the upright.

So, they are able to convert to a completely different suspension arrangement (double wishbone) and since the upright used in the double wishbone setup still only has two pickup points (as they all do), they are able to run it within the rules.

Basically what i am saying is that the rules were changed to accommodate a car that does not have the goods to race in that class in order to do what is best for marketing, rather than racing. The only car that gets a benefit from this is the BMW because of it's funky/ unique suspension design from the factory.

People that like watching modified production cars race get the shaft because we are now watching cars that are dramatically tuned versions of road going cars racing against some one off frankenstein.

This creates a slippery slope and either someone will come to their sense and change the rules again, or you will start to see more bastardized cars running around until we have real cars racing mere facsimiles like you have in Grand Am.

I think that there is a lot to be said for people being inventive and pushing the envelope, but this is something altogether different.

 

Well I guess what we should do to please everybody is just have engine makers and auto makers. People can choose what engines they want in their car... this is America and I like my choices

 

hahaha. It's like legos for adults.

<<<too scared to google "adult legos"

 

Note that the guy who started that forum, Jim Labreck, is now selling his mint condition '95 rolling chassis. The car never ran with a V8.

I'd still like to see an on-track comparison between a turbo rotary and V8 conversion. One was scheduled on rx7club but never materialized. In theory, the rotary car should turn faster and easier, because there is more forward inertia with eight pistons flopping around

 

?

I never stated otherwise. The FD interior is very "plasticy", although well laid out.

 

[QUOTE=2007 Zx-10,Jun 25 2009, 11:14 AM] Note that the guy who started that forum, Jim Labreck, is now selling his mint condition '95 rolling chassis.

 

+1

 

I was actually considering the same thing, Vette or LSx RX7. Both are badass but for me I'd rather take the stock car. Better resale, easier to insure, no worries on SMOG. I test drove a stock C5 Z06 on Monday and damn... so nice.The S2000 might be up for sale soon.