Quote:
Originally Posted by Alan Roehrich
Lowering the horsepower on the pre 2008 cars is a joke, and a waste of time.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike Carr
Agreed. Say there are four-hundred different engine combinations in active Stock Eliminator. Why de-rate 375-380 of them rather than fix the 20-25 that are severely wrong?
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Mike, it isn't even that, although that in itself is a good reason, especially since the majority of the pre 2008 combinations are in line, with the exception of a few hidden gems such as Larry Hill's truck or Paul Wong's truck. It's the factory race cars that are so far out of line.
The problem, as I mentioned above, is the fact that if you take 10% off of the pre 2008 cars, you create a situation where they now have to protect that factor, so every one of those cards will drop at 1000 feet, or sooner. You have all of those cars sand bagging on every pass. Further, the more popular combinations, in the more popular classes, will be right back where they were in 2 years or less.
Let's use our stuff as an example, although Kevin Cradduck may not return to class racing. We have two 69 Camaro race cars, one in Stock Eliminator, one in Super Stock (the car belongs to Scot LaMar). The well known orange car has run with a 427/425 since Pete Biondo drove it back 7-8 years ago. Right now, we have two other choices, the 396/375, which I can replace the current (broken) 427 with relatively easily, and the 427 ZL-1, which I could build at a cost of maybe $15K. So we have 3 combinations, two of which are very popular, and fast. Odds are, those two will return to their current rating quickly, and we're right back where we started.
The lesser known green car, we pretty much have the 396/375 that is in it right now. To run a 427/425, we'd have to rebuild the car, after building a new short block, so we're looking at $30K. To switch to a ZL-1, we're talking $50K at least. To run a 325 or 350 horse 396, I'd have to start with a clean piece of paper under the hood, so we're looking at $20K.
Of course, I can convert both cars to 4 speeds, which would thrill Scot LaMar and Jimmy Bridges I'm sure. For a cost of $7500 each.
In any case, odds are, everything we have would be back to the current HP rating in 1-2 years. In the mean time, I suppose we'd have to refine the art of dropping at 1000 feet.
The thing is, those combinations are decades old, and fairly well factored. Why would they need to be refactored, when they are not the problem?
The most simple, most cost effective, most long term, and cleanest solution is to put the factory race cars in their own classes. It works, it works immediately, and it continues to work for as long as the factories want to keep playing the game.