I'm coming late to this discussion, sorry. My login was long in coming.
Quote:
Originally Posted by snaponbob
The street tuner classes are partially an answer to the fast and furious crowd, partially to the folks that wanted to "enhance" there cars and have a place to "class" their cars for solo, and certainly have a class structure to have hopped up cars that are "street" cars (NO R rated tires) and not trailer queens.
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The "tuner" classes, aka ST* classes, are every bit of trailer queens as the street prepared classes at the higher levels of competition. They have spring rates and shocks that were not designed for the street. If you are saying this because of the tires, well the stated treadwear on a tire is put there by the manufacturer and means very little. One of the reasons the the ST* classes are popular is that any novice coming off the street likely has a CAI and/or springs and it's easier to run in ST* than an *SP class o 140+ treadwear tires.
Quote:
Originally Posted by snaponbob
Stock class rules are quite restrictive. ANY DOT rated tires, cat back systems, shock/strut replacements, and air filter element (only) are allowed. The end. You can't even change the shifter, steering wheel, seat or just about anything else. Frankly I have never agreed with the cat back and R-Rated tires being allowed in stock classes, but my name is not spelled SCCA!!   One can even run stock class and sub classify your car (street tire) to allow for NOT having r-rated tires. |
Those are not the only changes you are allowed in stock. I would go on to list them all but some help your times and others don't. The big ones that you missed are: wheels (with some restrictions), brake pads, front sway bar, and any fluids (there are diff fluids that make open diffs act like LSDs). I'm picking up my Solstice specifically to autocross. After the purchase of the car, there are multiple thousands of dollars of parts that I need to buy.
Quote:
Originally Posted by snaponbob
Look at the SCCA site and you'll find the schedule for national events. Google "autocross clubs" or something like "(your town) autocross" and you'll find local clubs. Find one, show up on that Sunday, and take a look. You might want to try it. Except for tires, autocross is really not hard on a car at all. Fun stuff.
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Autocrossing is fun. However it will expose the weaknesses in cars. Almost every car that is autocrossed heavily blows a shock. My MR2 would break swaybar mounts. Neons would wear out motor mounts and wheel bearings. Celicas and Saturns tend to lose engines to oil starvation. Miatas alignment bolts slip. I'm not saying that the Sky/Solstice has any of these problems but even cone hits can sometimes damage fog lights and body panels.