SCCA weights (was Re: Spider VS Miata)

[Richard Welty <rwelty@domain.elided>]

On Sun, 13 Oct 2002 11:37:13 EDT AlfaNeely@domain.elided wrote:
>        The SCCA IT or Improved Touring classes are stock based classes 
> allowing suspension modifications, but little can be done to the engine
> & 
> driveline.  The race weights are based on the manufacturer's shipping
> weights 
> with no adjustments for competition potential.

the funny thing about that is that some cars, after all the legal
lightening (carpet, headliners, most interior panels, sound deadening
materials) will still be 100lbs or more more overweight, and other cars
require some care with lightening as they will come in underweight if you
do everything. examples of cars that tend to run light include most VW/Audi
products classed in IT. perhaps the oddest situation is with the old Datsun
240/260/280Z series; the 240 generally makes weight, but if you lighten a
280 up per the legally allowed methods, it typically comes in 50 pounds
under or so. the weights listed in the book are higher for the later cars,
but the cars themselves don't seem to be a lot heavier.

many drivers are suprise that after they perform legal lightening, they can
come in underweight and be DQ'd. it pays to find out how much your car
weighs _before_ you finish in the top 3 and get weighed in impound.

>        As an example of the lack of competition adjustments, Richard
> Welty is 
> racing an Alfetta sedan in ITB.  His sedan has to weigh 2605 pounds with 
> driver. 

for what it's worth, i think the GCR weights are not correct for Alfetta
Sedans/Sports Sedans. they give a single line to all 2L 116 sedans in the
US market, and the later Sports Sedans are a bit heavier. i tried to make
this case to the Competition Board a few years ago, to get the pages
separated and a lower weight for the earlier cars, but it was tabled.

with all the lightening i've done to date, my early sedan is very close to
the legal minimum. i have to use some care with car prep as a result, so i
don't get caught out -- although now that we can ballast up to 180lbs in
the passenger footwell, it's not so bad.

as far as competition adjustments go, i've been told by a reliable source
that the comp board may actually make weight tweaks occasionally for just
that reason, but you'll never get them to admit in public. i was told this
quite a few years ago, and the comp board membership has largely turned
over since then. i have to say that because the current chair of the comp
board, Kurt Weiss, is a friend and also is the cage builder who did my
cage, and he has never said anything of the kind to me (i don't want people
who know that i know kurt to jump to any conclusions).

richard
--
Richard Welty                                         rwelty@domain.elided
Averill Park Networking                                         518-573-7592
              Unix, Linux, IP Network Engineering, Security
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