Bay Area 914 Folks, GGR Rules Meeting on Saturday Options

[billd]

Bay area 914 people. For those of you who participate in PCA-GGR events, please consider attending the GGR rules meeting this Saturday at 3:30PM. Some mid-engine representation is needed to make sure our interests are considered. Details are at:

http://www.pca-ggr.org/show.cgi?id=2006rulesprop

GGR is proposing changing from the current class system to a point system. Its clear that the proposed point system was developed with little input from914 people (or Boxster people for that matter).

See http://sandbox.visualproduce.com/ru...s/web/index.php

The point system is supposed to have two benefits - more competition, and incremental modification. With points, there will be fewer classes with more cars each. Also, if you make one small modification to your car, say going from EFI to Webers, you will bump up just a few points - not all the way from B to Bx.

While these two benefits sound good, as a 914 owner they are of limited value and there are some big disadvantages. There is a huge mid-engine bias in the current proposal, it favors heavily modified cars, and it leads to very different cars running in the same class.

First, the folks making the rules had enough mid-engine envy that they gave a 2.0L 914 a 150 point penalty for autocross. That is, they consider the difference between a 914 and a 911 with comparable power/weight to be the equivalent of adding R-compound tires. As a result an unmodified 2.0L 914 (95hp) has the same points as a 69 911E (140hp), so being mid-engine is worth nearly a 50% increase in horsepower, I don't think so.

The argument the commitee used in making these rules is that the 914being a mid-engine car handles better than a 911. This is true, but the new rules also make it relatively cheap to balance the handling of any car with sway bars (30 points) - making the 911s just as balanced as a 914 but with 50% more horsepower.

Second, the rules favor people who modify their cars. For example the first 1 point increase in compression ratio is free. So someone who upgrades their 2.0L with european pistons (taking the stock 7.5:1 to 8:1) gets a free 10hp. If they modify the heads to take it to 8.5:1 its still free (in points, not $$). Going to non-stock springs is one point charge regardless of the spring rate, so someone who heavily modifies their car with very stiff springs pays no penalty vs someone who puts on a streetable 140lb spring. There are many other examples that favor people who move their cars further from stock.

I personally like to keep my cars very close to stock and don't want to be non-competitive because of rules that encourage extreme modifications.

Finally, the new rules will have all different sorts of cars running in the same class. The points equate adding sway bars with an increase in horsepower. Unfortunately this doesn't work. There are some autocross courses - like the one Trekkor did at Marina a while back - that favor horsepower, and others that favor handling.

The current system works well for 914s. We have lots of competition and small modifications keep your car in Bi or Bp with other cars with comparable modifications. The new system will result in 914s being penalized - competing with 911s with 50% more horsepower - and will favor people who modify their cars far from stock. I see no need to change.

What do other 914 club folks think?