So long SCCA Stock; hello Street

In reply to Apexcarver, it is just a number. In a previous life, I used to work for a tire manufacturer, and while you can say that, in reality it is not really so. Not that you could produce an R with a 200 rating, but there is a lot of room to move around. And the compound is not the only aspect you'll be dealing with, there are other construction parameters that a manufacturer will use.

I still maintain there will be no real difference to run at the top, and in fact could be more expensive. If you can't change camber, and you run shaved tires, I think they will tear up much faster than an R. I could see some cars needing new tires after one event. Granted this is probably not true on the local level, but in the end, it will affect those that run national events.

While the Hoosiers are expensive, if your car is setup, they can have decent wear. And although I know I keep beating a dead horse here, I hope I'm wrong and this new rule set makes a big difference. And I also agree autocross is getting expensive. What do you do? Maybe this is a good step, maybe not. If I had my way, I'd keep the R's and have durometer requirements, tread depth, etc.

From my personal experience, I do not want my street tire on the same tires I autocross. They generally drive like crap on the street afterwards and I'm a bit picky in that regard.

Anyway, not picking on the new rule, just my personal opinions.

What do you mean that's a lot of street classes? It's no more classes than there are today. I'm saying to me it would make since if you had 3 ways to build a car. Limited prep, more prep, tons of prep. For "street" tires that would be the now current Street->Street Touring -> and changing the current Street Mod to be required to run 140TW tires. So function as Modified class (Engine swaps, no tire width rules, suspension geometry changes) for cars running "Street" capable tires. SP, Prepared, and Mod would remain basically the same as they are today.

Basically keep with the rules progression that we are used to. I really don't understand why you think this is confusing. ST would have the same rules it does today. SP would have the same rules it does today the primary difference is I would change the name of "StreetPrepared" to Soloprepared so no one is confused about if they need to run Street tires. Soloprepared would be what it is today allowed to run on Rcomp tires. Prepared would be unchanged allowed to run on Slicks. Mod would be unchanged allowed to run on Slicks. Street would be what it is ran on 200TW, Street Touring would be ran on 200TW, and Street Mod would be ran on 140TW.

In reply to nocones:

Ok... explained a little better this time... but still don't agree. With the Stock to Street change, there are too many street tire classes as is. Leave SP and SM alone.

I'm not suggesting to change SP. I'm simply suggesting to change it's Name so it doesn't confuse people by having "Street" in it's name.

As to SM I've always thought that class makes no sense. It's like Mod with interiors and runs times not much faster than SP. To me it makes more sense to offer a street tire class beyond ST than it did to offer another Rcomp/Slicks class that falls somewhere between SP and Prepared. It's even weirder because the SM modification list is targeted at cars that could be street use but allows Rcomp tires. The StreetMod Street Tire classes that several regions run with large participation numbers make more sense to me than the official SCCA SM/SSM/SMF classes do.
Either way I would like to see a more extreme street tire class than ST. Something that really pushes the limits of what a car could do on Street tires. There is currently no where in the SCCA class structure for cars with extensive modifcations that want to run street tires. That's a shame to me.

In reply to nocones:

Ok. I can kinda see that arguement. I guess the issue is at the top level, the SM cars are prepped such that the aren't really streetable anymore. The top Evo in my region is trailered. Then again... there are a couple of Stock cars (an AS Vette and a BS Solstice) that are trailered as well.

Is RT* going away now, I hope?

In reply to Will:

Depends if it was covering the stock classes or not....

In reply to no cones: Thank you, that made more sense to me, I still don't know if that'd be a good thing though. SM is pretty much a combination of SP and P though. No gutting or weld in bracing, but almost unlimited engine/braking mods.

nocones wrote: Require Street Mod to run on 140TW and above.

140TW tires in SM makes no sense at all. You've got a class that requires engine swaps or $10K+ in engine work alone to build a competitive car and you're worried about tire budgets?

nocones wrote: As to SM I've always thought that class makes no sense. It's like Mod with interiors and runs times not much faster than SP.

IMHO the mistake here is looking for consistency between rule sets. SM exists because there was a perceived need to grow the sport and a group of auto enthusiasts who had nowhere to play. These were people with heavily modified Hondas, turbo Miatas, etc. They're people who were willing to spend money modifying their cars, but still wanted to be able to drive them to work every day, so they've still got the interior, stereo, etc. Street tires don't really make sense for cars with double the stock horsepower -- they've usually got plenty of traction issues even with Hoosiers.

As I understand it, the original consistent setup was just S, P, and M, with the other categories (SP, ST, SM, now XP) being afterthoughts that were designed to appeal to specific groups of people with existing cars that didn't fit into the previous rulesets.